A Kiss Isn't Just A Kiss
by shadow243ali
Summary: It started off with a kiss on the cheek but they always wanted more. And who could blame them, he was utterly brilliant and handsome…and clever. Very very clever.
1. Prologue

**AN: I just can't seem to stop myself. Too many stories...so little time to update them. Ah, I'm off soon so I suppose it doesn't matter much. I really don't know why I came up with this idea. Actualyl I began writing this down a while back but I forgot about it because I didn't know where I was going to go with it but I do now...well, kinda. Review if you like it...**

**A Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss**

**Prologue**

The one thing in all manner of speaking is that a kiss isn't just a kiss. It can be a friendly gesture - a kiss on the cheek. A compliment - a kiss on the hand. Passion - a snog. More than passion - sex. Yet the one thing that unites all these things is the simple belief that a kiss isn't just a kiss.

This was something the Doctor knew very well but always refused to admit.

"You know I can't remember anything?" said Rose, her face scrunched up in concentration

"Really?" the Doctor replied quickly, trying not to appear to be interested much.

"I mean Cassandra took over my body and I can't remember a single thing. I mean I know it happened ages ago but you'd think I'd remember by now. Wouldn't you Doctor?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." He mumbled in response. Why was she bringing this up? I mean she wouldn't remember the kiss. Did she? What had…

His vague retort was noticed, "Are you even listening to me?"

The Doctor's mind was in fact miles away and this was made crystal clear to Rose when he gave his next answer."Hmmm...yeah."

"Oh a big red button? Should I press it?"

"Oh yeah. Sure. Wait what?" His head turned, a cracking noise in head was made obvious. He noticed her hand hovering over a big red button and his eyes widened in surprise. "No! Don't touch that! Ever! Well, not unless you want time to go backwards and that's not good for anyone. Trying to listen to someone whose talking backwards is complicated and practically impossible to understand unless you're a genius."

"touba no uoy era tahw?"

"Oh no, Rose..." He looked at her with a wounded expression, "Oh god, I should have stopped you...Wait! Why am I not talking backwards?"

Rose burst out laughing, unable to keep her stoic expression any longer.

"That's not funny Rose!"

"Yeah it was. You should have seen your face. I've been practising that for a week."

"It's still not funny…" he muttered, giving her his best downcast wounded puppy expression.

"Oh come here!" She wrapped her arms around him and he smiled behind her back, he had won and his prize was a hug. It wasn't until he felt her lips brush his cheek leaving a soft kiss that his eyes widened in surprise.

Oh no!

This was the beginning of a downward cycle. He knew from experience. It started off with a kiss on the cheek but they always wanted more. And who could blame them, he was utterly brilliant and handsome…and clever. Very very clever.

Was it strange that more woman surrounded around him when he was wearing his smart specs?

He wouldn't let this happen, not to Rose. He wouldn't let him bring Rose down with her infatuation of him. He would stop it!

He pulled back and she gave him a smile, "Feeling better?"

He nodded and hoped he didn't look as worried as he thought he did. He would stop this before she fell head over heels in love with him. That would be easy, wouldn't it?

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Doctor!" Rose voice shouted from above him, causing the Doctor to jump in surprise, hitting his head against the grating.

"OW!" He rubbed at his aching head, as he came out from under the grating.

"Oh sorry…" Rose gave an innocent looking face. This hadn't been the first time it had happened and it was unlikely to be the last, "Does your head hurt?" He nodded, "Come here, let me have a look."

The Doctor let her lead him towards the captains chair. He sat down as her fingers traced the area around his tender scalp. He yelped in surprise as she pressed down, "Ow…it hurts."

"Well, you'll live."

"It still hurts…" he grumbled, as her fingers masaged his head. He couldn't help but think how good it felt,

"Awww…do you want me to kiss it better?" The Doctor stood up quickly, his eyes wide. This wasn't good. He was trying to stop Rose from wanting to kiss him, not fuel her onwards.

"No…" His voice was higher than usual. He coughed trying to cover it up, trying to maintain a somewhat manly voice, "I mean no. I'm fine. Now I've got some repairs to do."

Rose raised her eyebrows in surprise to the Doctor's strange behaviour. She watched him warily, as a flush of red reached round his neck and instantly brightened his cheeks. She bit her lip in an attempt not to laugh. Was he embaressed about her saying she would kiss it better?

Oh but this was brilliant. She could have some fun with this.

"Aw, come her Doctor. Let me kiss it better! I mean you won't be able to concentrate with a aching head" She grinned at him, a grin that she knew would make him back away into a corner. It was her innocent grin, the same grin he had learned to never trust.

Oh, this wsn't good. This was not good at all, espscially when she was grinning at him like that. He felt himself back away slowly as she tried to close the gap between them, "Oh it's fine. Not even an ache anymore…just a dull throb. Almost gone in fact. Completely…uh, what are you doing?"

Her hanDhad snaked its way up his tie to rest on his cheek and he couldn't tear his gaze away from her. This was going to end up badly. She would fall head over heels in love with him if she even tried to kiss him. He was that irrestable…espescially in this new body.

"I'm just looking at your head, now lean down so I can kiss it better." She bit down on her bottom lip, to stop the laugh that threatened to erupt and slowly licked her lips to cover up the fact. Not that he would notice, he was to busy looking down at her hand.

The Doctor whimpered, too softly for Rose to hear but all the same. This was going to end badly…oh, and now she was licking her lips. This was going to be a disaster. A complete and utter disaster. She would try to kiss him and then he wouldn't be…

Rose continued to speak, interrupting his thoughts, "Oh, it looks fine. Doesn't need a kiss…" She dropped her hand and gave him a soft smile.

"It, uh, it doesn't?" Rose couldn't help but note how flustered he looked, and at that moment she wished she had a camera to take a picture of that look. It was priceless, "Are you sure?"

"Completely. See you later Doctor. I'm off to bed." Rose turned on her heels, leaving the Doctor wondering what had just happened…

What the hell was that? Maybe she was only concerned…maybe but she had seemed so persistent earlier and then…nothing. Maybe she wasn't going to fall head over heels for him, but he couldn't take that chance.

He would draw up his plan tomorrow but for now he would be content with trying to get rid of his headache before finishing repairs to the Tardis.

Suddenly there was a noise. The Doctor stopped, straining his ears to hear it. No, it couldn't be. Was Rose laughing? Who was she laughing to?

The Doctor followed the sound of her laughter, down the door, past the kitchen until he reached her room. He pressed his ear to the door. She was still laughing.

He lightly knocked before popping his head into see Rose hurridly hide something behind her back. Curiosity struck him. What was she trying to hide?

"Everything alright, Doctor?"

"Yeah…yeah, I, uh, just heard you laughing."

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking of something funny." Rose had indeed been thinking of something funny. Something that would scared the Doctor, something that if done correctly would not only scare him but would cause her to have a good old laugh at him for being such an idiot.

"And what would that be?"

She bit her lip, as an image popped into her head, "Of that time you got your head stuck in the washing machine."

"I did not!"

"You did too. I had to pull you out remember."

The Doctor faultered for a moment, unable to think of a reply before he muttered, "Uh, I have to go do some repairs."

Rose smiled as the door shut, and took out the item she had previously been looking at. She hoped he didn't see but it didn't matter if he saw it now anyway. It wasn't finished but when it would be…well, she knew one thing for sure.

It would be funny. Very very funny.

**AN: I wasn't orginally going to have Rose's side on this but I thought I could come up with some more comedic value if I did. 10 points to anyone who can guess what she's up to...**


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry it took me a few days to get this next chapter up. I was working on a chapter and suddenly I thought that it wasn't right. Well, at least not yet. it felt more of a middle chapter so I kind of put it off for a few days thinking where I could go with this and this chapter was born last night from my sleep deprived mind at 5 in the morning.**

**Chapter Two**

"So where are we off to?" Rose smiled at him, awaiting his response and the Doctor couldn't help but feel suddenly like he was prey dangling in front of a predator's eyes.

"Uh, I hadn't planned going anywhere…" he replied nonchalantly, trying to maintain an unfazed fascade under her penetrating gaze.

"Can we go to a shop or something? I need to go get a new diary. My last one suddenly ran out of pages…"

The Doctor ears pricked up at the mention of a diary. When did she start keeping a diary? Was he in it? Well, he had to be in it, didn't he?

"Am I in your diary?" She gave him a look that plainly stated, 'Of course you are' but he didn't notice, still too wrapped up in thoughts of what she could possibly be writing about him, so she had to elaborate, "Obviously. I do travel around time and space with you. It's a little hard to miss you out."

The Doctor grinned, proud to have a place in her diary, "So I'm guessing it's all about me then."

Rose bit back a response that would have been too rude to speak, but instead opted to reply with, "Oh yeah, I'm constantly professing my undying love for you in it."

Hopefully he would take that bait. She saw his eyes widen, as what she could only guess was fear took over him. She grinned. He had fallen for it.

"Ah…"

He suddenly found himself speechless. What was he meant to say to that? Was she joking? She wouldn't be, would she? He was the kind of person people fell in love with easily. Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane, Reinette, Cleopatra…Ah, old Cleo. That was a while back. He had been a different man back then, but no matter what, people seemed to be falling head over heels in love for him. Rose was seemingly doing so too so maybe she was professing her undying love for him in her diary. It was probably the only place she could admit her true feelings about him.

"So can you drop me off at a shop? I won't be long, although we do need to pick up some groceries so maybe I should take my time getting some food. And I did need to get my hair redone. I haven't had it cut in ages. You don't mind do you? It can give you time to wander about the Tardis."

"Sure." His head bobbed up and down, as his minds began working in overload. He could wander through the Tardis and if he just so happened to wander into Rose's room and accidentally come across her diary and, without realising, read about her confessing her undying love for him then it wouldn't be his fault. It would have been a simple mistake.

The Doctor began to pull the Tardis out of the Time vortex as he gracefully landed the Tardis with a rather large bump, causing Rose to fall forward but the Doctor caught her, pulling her back up by the waist, "You okay?"

She blushed, "Yeah…"

"Ok then," His hand lingered on her waist as he stared down at her. Would it be so bad if she was in love with him? He quickly removed his hand as soon as the thought popped into his head. Of course it would be a bad idea, "You have shopping to do. Remember to get marmalade. Lots and lots of marmalade."

"Doctor, I'm not going to get a lot of marmalade. It was bad enough the last time when you bought 12 of them. The woman thought you were weird. Especially when you asked if they had any banana groves nearby," He looked up, realising the important item he had forgotten – Bananas. He was out of bananas. Rose was already a step ahead of him, "Yes I'll get you some more bananas."

She smiled at him. She always knew what he was thinking. He always lo- uh, liked that about her, but what if she knew what he was thinking of doing once she was gone. Not that he was doing anything wrong if he accidentally came across a certain book in her room. She couldn't know, could she?

He watched her stick her hand out. He looked down at her empty palm, confused, "What?"

"Well, I need money so cough it up."

He rolled his eyes dramatically, digging into his bigger on the inside pockets, "Humans. You know your lot go out and get jobs, but what do you do? You-"

Rose cut him off, "Well I could get a job, but it might affect travelling though time and space with you. You're right though. I should get a job. We should just ignore all those planets looking to be saved by us because I'll be too busy or tired out from working. You know I'll go up to the job centre today and-"

"Yes I get the point Rose," He said handing her a wad of cash, "You can clamp a hand over my mouth next time you want me to stop rambling about your lot."

She smiled, walking out the door before suddenly turning around as she half opened the door, "I think a kiss would be more effective."

She left smiling, giving him a cheeky wink in the process. He stood staring at the closed door, too stunned to move and thinking only one thought.

This was not good.

To be contineud...

**AN: Tell me what you think... : D**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The Doctor walked down the corridor of his fine ship. He loved his ship, it was his one constant companion. He stopped placing a hand on the wall and muttered, "Now you won't fall in love with me, now will you?"

It hummed lightly in response.

"Well, of course we love each other as a ship and owner…well, not owner. I mean it's not as if I actually bought you. I mean considering the fact that I technically stole you would definitely not make me an owner. Let's say…Captain." He grimaced, "That reminds me of Jack. Oh forget it. We both love each other as friends and nothing more. You won't fall head over heels in love with me. I mean if you were then you'd probably never take me on those side trips."

The ship high hum pierced into the Doctor's mind.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" He paused, listening to his ship's response, "Well, you do take me on side trips. Like that time Rose and me ended up surrounded by a colony of hungry Carkaviks. We almost had gotten eaten because of your side trips."

The Doctor covered his ears at her response.

"Woah, for a ship you sure have a dirty mind. Where did you even pick up words like that? Ok, ok let's just drop the subject before things get nasty. You're still a brilliant ship. Now can you please stop moving around Rose's room." The ship obliged, but it was not because the Time Lord wanted it. No, the ship was no longer trying to stop the Doctor from becoming part of Rose's prank. She was helping.

The Doctor beamed as he turned a corner and saw the familiar bedroom door of Rose's room, "You're brilliant!" He shouted to the Tardis, "Now warn me if Rose comes back."

Stepping into her room, he couldn't help but notice how mess she really is. How was he meant to find her diary in this mess? Wait, he wasn't trying to find her diary, but if he were to accidentally come across it in this mess then it wouldn't be his fault if he read it…

He loved reading random books and how would he possibly be able to know if it was her diary. Just because it happened to be in her room among her things then it wouldn't necessarily mean that it was her diary. There were loads of Rose's in the universe, none came to mind at that moment, but there had to be and she might have been reading about a-

"Oh what's that?" He said aloud, bending down. His hand grasped around a book on the floor and as he carefully lifted it up, he found himself more shocked than he could imagine, "But-but-but that's…But that's my diary!"

He looked at the book, staring at the detailed Gallifrayean symbols that covered it. She had found his diary. The cheeky mare! She went into his room, rummaged around his stuff and found his diary. Who would do such a thing?

He looked around; ignoring the irony of the situation he was in and decided that he might as well embrace his hypocritical side. He put his diary in his pocket before he found himself frantically searching for her diary in a room full of mess.

It wasn't under the bed, or in the wardrobe or on her bookshelf. He scratched his head, wondering where she might of put it. He turned towards the chest of drawers and carefully opened the first one. He raised an eyebrow at the amount of makeup that had been stuff in there. Did she really use all that? He closed it again, seeing no trace of a book in there and opened the second one, praying Rose wouldn't magically come in right at this moment.

He took a deep breath, listened for the sound of approaching footsteps and after finding none moved his hand towards the drawer, but he found he could not dare it to go in. Instead it hovered above it.

Maybe he shouldn't be doing this. Surely she wouldn't hide her diary in there, would she? She had stolen his diary. Wasn't it only fair he did the same? It wasn't as if he wanted to go through her…things, but he had to in order to make things fair. Yes, that was it. He was only doing this to make things fair and just so he plunged his hand, reluctantly of course, into her underwear drawer.

_Please don't suddenly come in…please don't suddenly come in…please don't suddenly come in…_

Wait, at the back of the drawer. There was something in there. His hand closed around the object just as the door opened.

"Doctor, what the hell are you doing?"

_Oh dear…_

To be continued...

**AN: This was going to be longer but I really really wanted to leave it on that kind of cliffhanger. Come on, you can't help but admit it's a funny cliffhanger. Don't worry though because I have written the next chapter so it will be up very soon. So review if you enjoyed it...**


	5. Chapter 4

**AN: And as promised here is the new chapter. One day after the last one. It could've been worse. I could've left you for days wondering what would happen next, but I'm being nice so here's the new chapter. :)**

**Chapter Four**

"Uh," he looked up, knowing there was no plausible excuse for having his hand in her underwear drawer, but despite knowing this fact, he attempted to rummage his mind for any excuse that would save him from the Tyler slap. He withdrew his hand, carefully pocketing the book and opened his mouth, "Well, I was looking for-"

"A pair of my knickers?" Rose suggested, trying not to laugh. She had hid the diary in there so she could walk in and see him squirm like this. She silently thanked the Tardis for helping her to walk in at the right moment, "Well?"

A deep shade of crimson covered his face. He pulled at his tie. Had it always been this warm in here? He gulped, "Well, I was trying to find out when your birthday was," Where had that came from? Maybe it would work, "Yeah, I was trying to find out when your birthday was so I was trying to find that book with your mum's number in it and it wasn't anywhere else so I opened up this drawer to see if it was in there."

"Oh really?"

He scratched the back of his head, hoping that he looked innocent, "Uh, well, yeah. I mean I was gonna take you to a restaurant on the planet Goritch Pertuba to surprise you." He looked her in the eye wondering where this thought had suddenly come from. He probably would have taken her there on her birthday, but her birthday wasn't for 2 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes. Not that he was counting, of course, but she didn't have to know that he knew that, "I knew your birthday was coming up soon and I thought your mother could help me find out."

Rose knew he was lying. She knew he was trying to get her diary or to be precise the one she had put in there, but at that moment she didn't really care because he looked adorable flustered and a small part of her knew he would've taken her there so she walked over and threw her arms around him, "Well, next time, it would be probably easier to take a trip to my mums."

"What and face the dragon?" He said into her ear.

"Oi! My mum is not a dragon."

"You keep telling yourself that."

"Does that mean I'm a dragon too?" she asked, pulling back from the embrace.

"Oh," He grinned before the words came tumbling out of his mouth, "But you do make a cute one."

Rose's jaw dropped - Had he just called her cute?

The Doctor's eyes widened in realisation - Had he just said she was cute?

He gulped, "Well, I, uh, better be, uh, off."

"Don't you want to know when my birthday is?"

He blushed, "Right yes of course. Uh, it's like in two weeks and two days, isn't it?"

Rose nodded as he backed away, not paying attention to where he was going. Before he knew it, his knees had collided with a box on the ground and he suddenly found himself flying backwards.

Rose rushed forward, "Doctor, are you alright?" She asked, before accidently tripping on a misplaced item, suddenly finding herself right on top of the Doctor.

"Uh, fine." He blushed again as he suddenly found Rose's face dangerously near his, "I…"

His voice trailed away as he surprisingly found his gaze alternating between her eyes and her lips. What would it be like to kiss her? He sat up, causing Rose to fall off of him.

"Oh sorry, I should, uh, get going. Things to do, repairs to make…" He said, before whispering quietly to himself, "Cold showers to take."

"Right." She sat up nodding as he mumbled something to himself. He gave her one last nod before rushing out and Rose almost laughed at the sight of the diary sticking out of his pocket. It wasn't the book itself that she wound funny, but more of the fact that a pair of her knickers had got caught in it.

She shook her head, before getting up to lie on her bed. He had been so close to her. He could've almost…no, he wouldn't. He just felt awkward. He probably thought she had a crush on him. Although once he started reading that diary…well, she wouldn't be surprised if he started acting more embarrassed. Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do…

She closed her eyes, ignoring the thought. It wasn't as if she was in love with him, at least not in that way. He was her best friend, and she travelled with him. That was it, wasn't it? And it wasn't as if one little prank wouldn't ruin that, would it?

It would be funny to see him squirm, at least for a little while. She grinned and closed her eyes as sleep washed over her.

To be continued...

**AN: Review if you enjoyed :)**


	6. Chapter 5

**AN: I'm really glad with the response I'm getting with this story. 46 reviews so far and I'm only on chapter 5. I didn't even get this quick a response with my 'Any Questions?' story which, of course, I have brilliant and faithful reviewers for who are so utterly brilliant in all ways, shapes and other form that I cannot fathomly comprehend in mere words, but people seem to be really liking this story too so hurray! I'm gratdul to all you brillaitn people...yeah for the record, I'm in a random mood today. **

**Chapter Five**

The Doctor slowly closed the door to his bedroom, leaning against it. That had been close. She had almost kissed him...or had he almost kissed her? He paused, trying to replay the scene in his head again, before shaking away the image. She had to have been the one who had almost kissed him. Why would he try and kiss her? It didn't make sense. He wasn't the one who was head over heels in love with him so there would be no reason for him to have been the one leaning forward ever so slightly, inching closer towards her lips...

The Doctor's face scrunched up in concentration as he tried to remember how he had started thinking about Rose's lips.

"You know you were no help." he muttered to the Tardis, "You could have warned me she was coming." The Tardis remained silent, "Oh! You were getting your own back, weren't you? Oh nevermind...I got what I wanted anyway."

He reached into his pocket, retrieving the book and gulped in surprise at the sight of a pair of her pink frilly knickers caught at the side of it. He carefully picked them from the book, holding them up in front of him hesitantly.

What was he going to do with these? It wasn't as if he could head back and say, 'Oh sorry Rose but a pair of your knickers somehow ended up in my pocket.' No, he couldn't do that. Definitely not...maybe he could sneak them back in. Or he could wait until they heard off to the laundromat and he could slip them in her bag of clothes...Yeah. that would work. He's have to remember to do that, but until then he would have to hold on to them.

He quickly slipped them back into his pocket, and held the book in his hands as a feeling of guilt took over him. This was her personal diary. Maybe he shouldn't go near it. Who knows what she could be going on about in there? These are her thoughts, her ambitions, her dreams, he life with him in a book and he was invading it. No, he couldn't do it...

He looked at the book, wishing it to give him the answer. Morally he shouldn't. It would be an invasion of privacy, but Rose had done the same thing to his diary even if she wouldn't be able to read it since he wrote in Gallifreyean, but she had the intent to read it. Wasn't that just as bad?

He passed the book from hand to hand, indecision weighing heavily on him until suddenly it fell, landing on the ground wide open with a soft 'THUD'.

He leaned down. If it was already open then it couldn't be an invasion of privacy. He picked it up, putting on his glasses in the process and promptly began to read.

_Day...(Oh who knows?) on the Tardis_

_It's hard to stop myself from constantly staring at him. I mean he's just so very very hot... _

What was she on about? How did temperature have anything to do with him? Maybe it was that time the temperature controls broke. She had ended up practically passing out that day because of the heat, despite the fact she was wearing one of his large shirts and a pair of cut off shorts. He was constantly checking on her that day...Uh, that was probably what she was on about. That day...

He flicked ahead a few pages, finding another short entry.

_Dear diary,_

_He was wearing the sexy specs again today. He puts them on and I can barely stop myself from grabbing him and kissing him senseless. I bet he doesn't even really need them, but I'm so glad he wears them. It makes my day. I swear if he puts them on one more time then I don't care, I'm snogging the life out of him._

He gasped in shock. She was in love with him. And she thought his glasses were sexy. He thought they made him look smart. He took off the glasses he was wearing and held them in his hands. Maybe he should stop wearing them to help Rose of course. He wouldn't want her snogging him senseless everytime he put them on. He sighed, shaking his head. He could get rid of the specs. He loved the specs. Ok sure he didn't really need them, but that wasn't the point. She had survived so far without snogging him senseless and she's have to continue doing so.

He flicked the pages until he found one word popping out at him - Love.

To be more specific, there was a whole two pages dedicated to him. Large hearts of a multi shades of red and pink stood out at him. Each with words along the lines of, 'DOCTOR 4 ROSE' and, 'DOCTOR 4EVER' stood out at him and he suddenly found himself very very scared.

He shut the book, pushing it back into his pocket. He couldn't read anymore. He need to sort Rose's obvious lusting for him out before it really got out of hand, but how was he to do that?

He paused, rubbing the back of his head, willing an idea to come to mind. A few seconds passed in the Time Lord's mind before he grinned, knowing exactly what to do.

He would cook her breakfast and he would take her out on a date. Of course she wouldn't know it was a date, but he would show himself off to be the worst date she could possibly have and she would give up her obvious lust for him. It was so simple. Why hadn't he thought of it sooner?

He sighed, pleased with himself. Now where could he take her?

To be continued...

**AN: Review if you enjoyed...**


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: this story would've been up sooner had it not been for the fact the libraries closed for a week because of somethign or other. I heard it was a strike but who knows? Anyway I'm back, I'm updating my stories once more, my birthday's on Monday and people are really getting into this story and if I'm truthful, I'm really enjoying getting to write this story. so everything's good...well, except for the fact I'm suffering minor writer's block on my Any Questions story, but I'm working past it and that's a completely different story anyway so I;m going to stop mentioning it. Now on with this story. :)**

**Chapter Six**

"Come on Rose. Up and atom."

The Doctor's voice bit into her tired mind. Too loud.Too early. Rose groaned as he began to shake her. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone? She just wanted to sleep.

She let out another frustrated sigh, pulling the covers - that the Doctor had pulled down only seconds before - back up to her face before she mumbled, "Leave me alone. I'm sleeping."

"Well, you're obviously not sleeping if you're answering me back. So get your lazy backside up."

"I'm not lazy. tired. Five more minutes."

He sighed dramatically before he huffed out a simple, "Fine."

She listened for a moment to his retreating footsteps, before her light snoring once again filled the room.

--

The Doctor walked out of her room and rolled his eyes. Humans - they spend most of their life sleeping. Even when he shows them the wonders of the universe they go back at the end of their day and sleep. Why couldn't they be more like him? He didn't need to sleep much. Once every week or so. That was enough for him but humans? Oh no, they had to go and spend hours out of their precious days sleeping.

He shrugged, pulling out the pink diary once more. He might as well get some reading done. After working out his simply brilliant plan on how to make Rose fall out of love with him, he had decided to read her diary from the start. So far he had read 30 different entries. Most them professing her love of him. Well, if he read between the lines then all of them were professing their love of him.

He flicked through the pages, finally landing on where he had left off.

_Dear diary, _

_He's in love with me. I know it. I want to have his babies. I don't care that he's technically an alien. We belong together. I mean come on, out of all the planets in all of the universe he comes to Earth. And then he has a whole world to choose from, but who does he pick to travel with him through time and space? _

_Oh yeah - ME!_

_I mean I turned him down the first time and he came back. That can only mean he loves me. So one day very soon, I'm going tell him about my feelings and then we can be together forever._

_FOREVER! DOCTOR AND ROSE! FOREVER!_

He gulped. Rose had lost it. That was the only conclusion. She had lost it temporarily when she wrote that entry. She wanted his babies? Ahhhh, that was not good. That was bad, really really bad.

He whimpered, letting a small nagging fear take over him. He had to put his plan into action now before he was lost to her in fantasies with children with her eyes and his messy brown hair. He looked down at the page again, his eyes trailing over to the next entry. Sure enough, it was depicting, in detail, their children's looks. There was even a crudely drawn picture...

She had lost it.

He shut the book, placing it back in his pocket. He would finish it later. For now, he would get Rose up. He had to stop her obsession before it went out of control. He didn't want her out of his life, but she couldn't spend it pining over him.

He turned, with a new goal in mind. To get Rose up.

--

She felt the soft shaking of her shoulder. She slowly opened her eyes to see the Doctor staring down at her and mumbled, "Hi..."

He smiled softly, "Time to get up."

"Five more minutes..." She mumbled into her pillow, "Just five more minutes."

"Rose, come on. Up you get!"

"Go away. M'sleeping."

She dug her head into her pillow, relishing in the softness. Her made no reply and in the small slightly awake part of her mind wondered why she had not heard him left, but she brushed off that thought.

She had been on the verge of sleep once more when she felt arms grab her waist. She yelped, now completely alert, "What are you doing?"

"It's time to get up Rose Tyler." He said, hoisting her over his shoulder and walking out of the room with her.

She couldn't ignore the slightly panicky sound of his voice. She smirked. He must have been reading her 'diary'. Maybe he had gotten to the babies part. She had spent most of the time laughing when she wrote that part. It must have scared the living pants off of him when he read it. He deserved it for the amount of pranks he had pulled on her. All's fair in love and war, as they say.

"Any chance of a shower?" she muttered into his upper back, "You can come in with me, if you want." She tried not to laugh when she felt his muscles tense. She was really getting to him, "And I'll need to get changed too. I mean if-"

She suddenly felt her bare feet touch the ground and tried her hardest not to giggle at the look on his face.

"Uh, you go have your shower and get changed. I'll be in the console room." He walked past her, his face beet root red. He paused turning on his heel, raising his finger to point at her in the process, "Don't go back to bed."

She nodded as he turned, practically running for the console room. Once he was out of her sight, she promptly doubled over, unable to contain her laughter.

Oh, this was brilliant!

--

He waited patiently for her, desperately trying not to reach into his pocket and pull out the book that was burning a deep pit of fear in his heart. It wasn't the time. He could read it later. Truthfully he didn't want to read it in fear of what he might come across. What if she had written about her crazy dream of a wedding to him?

Unbeknownst to him, Rose had done so, knowing that turning him domestic was one of his true fears. He'd rather die than do domestic.

At that moment Rose entered the room, almost laughing at the sight of him. He was sitting on the captains chair, staring out to nothing. She quietly walked up to him, careful not to draw attention to herself and jumped on him. Her hands reaching around his sides to tickle him.

He yelped, jumping off of his seat and instead, landed on the floor. A moment of silence passed between them before she burst out laughing.

"Come on you!" She held out her hand to him, "Up you get."

He worriedly looked at her hand before he tentatively took it. He didn't want her to get suspicious. He had to act completely normal, at least until he put his plan into action.

"So where are we going? I mean you don't usually carry me out of bed for nothing. Not that I mind, of course." She winked at him, trying not to laugh once more at his reaction.

He gulped. She was winking at him. He didn't want her winking at him. Winks were bad. Very bad. Winks like that meant she was flirting with him and soon she would want the flirting to lead to more and somehow she would end up kissing him senseless, like she said she would in her diary.

"Uh, right, yeah, ummm...let's go." He rushed over to the door, dragging her with him. He took his hand out of hers and opened the door, watching her reaction.

She took a few steps out before he followed. Her eyes refused to leave the sight before her as the breath caught in her throat, "Oh my god," she whispered, breaking the silence as her hand moved to wrap around his, "It's beautiful."

He smiled, stage one of his plan had worked. Now he had to just do the rest.

To be continued...

**AN: Review if you enjoyed...**


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: Oh yeah take that writer's block. I'm back, well, kind of. I can update one or two stories seeing as I've injured my hand but one or two updates is good...well, it's okay for me but at least the writer's block seems to be easing off. Now on with the story.**

**Chapter Seven**

"Oh this is brilliant!" She turned towards him and he felt as if he had never seen her smile as hard as she was doing in that moment, "What's it called?"

"It's the planet Korchaveele. Biggest shops in the universe, the best restaurants at every corner. fantastic food, delightful drinks and courteous citizenry. And-"

Rose grinned, interrupting him before he went into a ramble that would be difficult to stop once he started. He did it on every planet they landed on and she knew that this one would be no different, "Are you just trying to use as much alliteration as possible?"

The Doctor stood open mouthed, scratching the back of his head as he tried to think up an excuse, but his mind was blank as passages of her diary were the only thing occupying his head so he dejectedly replied, "Yes."

Rose nodded, biting back laughter, "So why are we here?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed as her slowly repeated, "Why are we here?" Rose looked at him with confusion as he once more, only slightly louder, repeated, "Why are we here?" The Doctor turned away and walked forward so that she couldn't see his face. He grimaced, realising he had not thought as far ahead as to come up with a plausible excuse. He silently cursed himself for being such an idiot before he turned back, a delighted grin spreading across his face like wild fire as he hoped his improvisation skills would be put to good use, "Rose Tyler, we are here because..."

"Because of what?" she asked, suddenly wondering what he was up to. Maybe the diary was getting him a little too much. Maybe he had already read through it and was planning to get revenge because he knew she was playing a prank on him. Suddenly the beautiful scene in front of her eyes seemed more dangerous at the thought. She would have to keep an eye on him.

"We are here so you and I can have a relaxing day for once." Rose shot him a 'What?' look so he suddenly found himself forced to continue, "Well, you're always going on about that everywhere we go, we always end up having to save the universe and although that is brilliant I thought that both of us needed a break, uh...a treat for all our hard work so here we are." He spread his arms out, emphasizing his surroundings, hoping with every fibre of his being that she was buying this. He brought his hand forward, wiggling his fingers, "So Rose Tyler, would you like to accompany me to dinner at one of the best restaurants in the universe?"

Rose looked down warily at the hand. Experience told her she could trust the Doctor but this was strange, even for him. It was so...normal. Well, as normal as it could get when you travel through time and space. A relaxing trip to a planet without monsters or having to save the world. It sounded a like the best treat she could possibly ask for and the Doctor was waving it right in front of her and that was the reason why she found herself doubting the action, seeing that the Doctor was involved. Why would he do something like this after reading her fake diary? It didn't make sense.

Rose looked up at his, studying his features. What was he up to? She narrowed her eyes for a moment before grinning and putting her hand through his. If he was up to something then she would be prepared, but if he wasn't then she might as well enjoy this treat.

"Ok then, let's go."

--

The walk into the town was short, but the Doctor could not help but noticed the look of marvel on Rose's face as the passed beautiful wildlife preserved in an Eco-bubble. The sun had reached it's midday cycle and he couldn't help but smile at the look on her face when she watched the green wistful sky brighten and spark as green merged into a lustrous lemon,

"That's beautiful..." she breathed out, and he couldn't help but let his eyes linger on her face for a little too long as she turned her head to look at him, their gaze locking on to each other instantly. He shook his head away and turned to walk forward, trying to shun the image of her out of his mind.

It wasn't until they had reached into the main streets of town that he suddenly wished that he had decided to go somewhere with less shops and Rose's eyes instantly brightened at the sight of the clothes on display at the window.

He groaned as she tugged on his arm, dragging him over to the shop, "Awww come on," began Rose, "This is a treat, you said so yourself and I can't go into one of the best restaurant in the universe dressed like this." she trailed her hand down, indicating her jeans and hoodie, "And look at the lovely dresses. Come on..."

The Doctor looked down at her and suddenly forgot about that he was trying to make him seem like a horrible date, but when she was looking at him with that look then it wasn't surprising that he forgot about his plan and let himself be brought into the shop, forgetting the tortuous wait he had been forced on the last time he went clothes shopping with a companion.

His tortuous past experiences with clothes shopping were made ever more clearer in his mind as with each second he spent in the shop,the crazier he thought he was becoming.

"What about this one?" asked Rose, coming out of the changing room a tenth time.

He looked up, not really caring. He didn't see what had been wrong with the last dress, or the one before that or the one before that, but he knew that no matter what he said she was going to find fault in it so he just muttered, "It's nice."

Rose let her eyes trail on him for a moment, hoping for some change in his reaction. She wanted a dress that would stun him, make him speechless and bring a smile to his face and she had been extremely unsuccessful so far. It wasn't as if she was trying to make him fall in love with her, the diary was intended to scare him off doing that. It was payback anyway so it didn't matter, but she had hoped for some sort of reaction. She wanted to find the perfect dress.

She sighed, turning back into the dressing room muttering something about the colour not being quite right.

The Doctor watched her retreating form and suddenly found himself once again bored. Time Lords weren't meant to be this bored.Time Lords weren't meant to be waiting for their companion to choose an outfit so they could go to dinner.

His stomach growled at the thought of food. He needed to get his mind off of food otherwise he would go crazy with hunger. Either that or he would crazy by Rose's inability to choose a dress.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out the diary. He might as well get some light reading done. He opened the book at where he last left off.

_Dear diary,_

_I don't know what to do. I'm really really bored. The Doctor is off tinkering with the Tardis..._

The Doctor stared down at the words. That was uneventful, but then he noticed the large tea stain and understood why the entry had been cut short. She had probably spilled tea on the book and herself and went off to clean it up. She could be so clumsy at times. He smiled, before turning the page.

_Dear diary,_

_I had this strange dream last night. We were on New Earth and I, but it wasn't really me, but I was kissing him and I mean really kissing him and when I pulled back he didn't seem to mind...hmm, strange or what?_

_Maybe I should try that...kissing him, I mean. Just to see his reaction. Although I'm sure he wouldn't mind. _

_I'm sure he wouldn't mind one little bit..._

The Doctor gulped. What was that meant to mean? Of course he would mind, well, he didn't mind when she kissed him on New Earth but that was Cassandra and that didn't count, right? That didn't count because it wasn't her. He might not have known that at the time and it was her lips, but that wasn't the point.

The Doctor looked up, putting the book quickly into his pocket when he heard the sound of the curtain being drawn back. He stared open mouthed at the sight before him, suddenly finding himself unable to speak.

Rose looked at him, a small smile twitching at the corners of her mouth, "How do I look?"

She looked down at her dress nervously as the Doctor's eyes trailed over her. She suddenly found herself very self conscious. It wasn't that bad, was it?

The Doctor's breath caught in his throat, "You look..." He trailed away, trying to find the right word, "Beautiful..."

To be continued...

**AN: Yep, I decided to leave it off there. I dunno why but it just seemed right...well, to me it did. I'm beginning to run out of ideas for what to put in the diary...well, I've still got weddings and other stuff. Oh, I'll think of something...I always do. Review if you enjoyed...**


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: Another day, another dollar...wait, I don't need a dollar seeing as I have no use for a dollar living in Ireland, but anyway, Another day and luckily this time I haven't forgotten my USB pen with my stories on it. Hurray! I was meant to update this yesrter but what did I do? Oh yes I forgot the USB pen...dear god, I never realsied how much I rely on that thing. Well, IU'm not going to bore you with my ramblings. On with the story...**

**Chapter Eight**

Rose smiled as they walked hand in hand down the street. Although she really wished she had taken up the offer the Doctor gave for them to get a hovercab. At the time she had wanted to take in the scenery with a nice walk to the restaurant, but about ten minutes into walking she had changed her mind when the pain of walking in high heels was made painfully clearer.

She could see the Doctor grinning every so often at her discomfort, but she wouldn't admit to him that she wanted to take a hovercab because if she did then that meant he had won their little unspoken battle and she was not letting him win so she stuck a smile on her face and kept on walking.

About ten minutes later, she gave up.

"Ok, I give up." she moaned coming to a halt. The Doctor smirked as she sat down on a nearby bench to rub her aching feet. She looked up at him and quietly asked, "Can we get a hovercab?"

He smiled in response, "Right away, Miss Tyler."

The Doctor walked up to the edge of the sidewalk, looked down both sides of the road and Rose could not help but watch him, a bemused smile on her face. He had mentioned that although there was hovercabs, many still took the 'wheels on solid ground' approach. Well, at least on this planet they did. Rose narrowed her eyes as the Doctor brought up a hand to his face. What was he planning to do?

Suddenly there was high-pitched whistle and Rose winced, covering her ears as she closed her eyes in pain.

"Well, come on then!" Rose opened her eyes to see the Doctor looking at her, rolling his eyes impatiently.

Rose stood, mouth agape. Where had that come from? One second the Doctor had made that horrible sounding whistle and then without warning or being made aware of it's prescience, Rose had found herself staring back up to see the hovercab waiting. Strangely enough, it resembled a New York cab from the 21st century, at least the ones she saw in the movies she had watched when her life wasn't filled with excitement, danger, travelling through time and space and, of course, the Doctor.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and gently tugged at her, pulling her out of her trance. He nodded towards the cab and Rose instantly got in. Unlike the outside, their surroundings were clean. The seats were comfortable and plush and, when she inhaled, she caught the whiff of cinnamon in the air.

"Where you off to?" asked the cab driver once the Doctor had shut the door after clamouring inside. The Doctor made a series of unrecognisable sounds and the cab driver nodded his head smiling. Rose turned her head towards the Doctor and stared at him. What the hell had he just said?

"Oh, that's a lovely place," Continued the cab driver, "Top nosh. I went there with the wife for our anniversary. Cost a fortune though."

"Yeah it does."

The cab shook for a moment and Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand in surprise. He gave a reassuring squeeze and grinned at her. Everything stilled for a moment before suddenly the cab jolted forward. Rose gave a yelp of surprise, which the cab driver ignored.

"Are you married?"

The Doctor and Rose turned to look at each other - shock clearly apparent in both of their faces - before the Doctor quickly said to the cab driver, "No no no no…" He glanced at Rose. Did they look like they were married? Maybe he had been unintentionally leading her on. Maybe that was why she had fallen so much for him, "No, we're not. We're not married at all."

"Really?" asked the cab driver, watching them in the mirror. His eyes trailed down to their entwined hands, "Are you together?"

"We're friends. Very good friends, aren't we Rose?"

"Yeah…" she replied, watching the Doctor out of the corner of her eye. She suppressed the urge to laugh, noticing the redness of his face. He was embarrassed. She gave his hand a squeeze and he turned to look at her before coughing, "you alright?"

He stared at her for a second, almost as if watching her reaction, "Me? I'm always alright."

She rolled her eyes as he turned away from her and stared out the window. The buildings flew by; colours and shapes swam in front of her eyes, just out of reach. In the blink of an eye, those same buildings had disappeared, leaving new ones in their place.

Suddenly it stopped. Everything stopped and Rose felt a wave of nausea hit her as the cab landed with a loud 'THUMP!'

The Doctor paid for the cab and they got out muttering their farewells to the cab driver. Rose looked up in awe at the building in front of her and felt the corners of her mouth tug in a smile, "Oh this is brilliant!"

"Well, it should be. I'm paying a fortune for it."

Rose forced her eyes away from the building and frowned, "Since when did you get money?"

"Since me and a sonic screwdriver came across an ATM while you were off trying on clothes," replied the Doctor.

Rose watched with bemusement as he took out his sonic screwdriver and held it in his hand, a small smile tugging at his lips. He gave it a little stroke and began to ramble on about the brilliance of the sonic. Rose resisted the urge to comment on his love of the sonic screwdriver. He could read a couple of pages in the fake diary about his trusty sonic and then maybe she would mention it, but he couldn't have gotten that far by now. Could he have?

Rose studied him out of the corner of her eye and promptly shook her head. No, he would be a hell of a lot more weirder about the sonic if he had gotten to that part.

"Right, I get it. The sonic screwdriver is the best tool a Time Lord can have. I get it. I really do, but you can go home and write all about the sonic in your diary, but for now can we just get on with it."

The Doctor face reddened at the mention of the word 'diary'. He gulped. What if she had found out about – hold on! His diary…why would she mention his diary after she had stolen it? He had stolen his diary back aswell as nicking hers in the process, but he wasn't going to go mentioning it. So why was she?

"How do you know I keep a diary?" he asked coyly.

"Oh, I saw you writing in it once." She replied offhandedly, hoping he wouldn't notice her biting her lip. This wasn't good. She hadn't meant to mention his diary. It had just sort of slipped out.

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow, before he turned his head away from her gaze and grinned to himself. He could have a little fun with this, "Funny thing is, I found it in your room."

"Really?" replied Rose, mimicking his stance, "Well, you must have been writing in your diary in my room…" She brought her hand up to her face and rubbed her chin in thought, pretending to contemplate something, "You know, it's funny but…I seem to be missing my diary. You didn't happen to see it." She looked straight into the Doctor's eyes and tried not to laugh. Luckily she was successful, "Did you Doctor?"

The Doctor gulped before he shook his head and muttered in a voice an octave too high, "No." He coughed, clearing his throat, "I mean no. Of course I haven't seen it. I wouldn't even know what it looked like."

"Oh…" Rose shrugged, "Ok then."

She turned back to staring at the building, leaving the Doctor surprised. That was it. That was all she had to say on the subject of her missing diary. Maybe she thinks she misplaced it and that would be a good sign for him. At least that meant he could read the rest of it and put it back without her noticing or maybe he wouldn't need to once he sorted out her infatuation of him.

He had to give her credit. She does a hell of a job hiding it from him at times. He had even known the true depths of her obsessed love for him until he had read the diary, but that made everything clearer and he had to sort it out.

He turned towards the restaurant, more determined than ever, "So Dame Rose," The Doctor grinned, holding out his arm for her to take, "Would you care to accompany me to dinner?"

"Sir Doctor, I would love to."

They smiled at each other before they headed inside hand in hand.

To be continued...

**AN: Review if you enjoy...enjoy if you review...yeah, I'm not sure where I was going with that. lol...**


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: Right, here I am, another chapter for you all...right. So, this story is my first ever story to get 100 reviews...I am slightly dissapointed it wasn't my 'Any Questions?' story, but that's probably because it's like my outlet for all things mean and mysterious...lol. Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter...**

**Chapter Nine**

"Right, reservation for two," stated the Doctor, holding out the psychic paper. Rose had to say it, but the psychic paper had to one of the best things ever. Not only did it get them into the restaurant, but into the V.I.P. section at the best possible table.

This was brilliant.

If this was what writing a fake diary got you then she would do things like this more often. She smiled at the Doctor who was looking over the menu with a grin on his face. She couldn't help but pay attention to the nagging sensation in the back of her mind that the Doctor was up to something.

She knew she was right about that fact, at least she was pretty sure he was up to something but like everything else when it came to the Doctor, she could never really tell. Not when it came to him. He was like an enigma wrapped in a puzzle placed in a locked room and hidden far away in a uninhabited area that no one ever expected to come across, but accidentally finds it only when lost or driven completely and utterly insane that they don't realise that the Doctor would make them look saner than any living being on Earth. Actually make that the universe,

She narrowed her eyes as he pulled out a chair for her. What was he up to? He may hold her hand, but he wasn't much into the gentlemanly gestures and holding out her seat for her was definitely one of those things that would be placed under the list she was compiling for strange behaviourisms for the Doctor.

She bit her lip, watching him under veiled eyes as he studied his menu with dubious intent. What was he up to?

"So what do you think you want to eat?" The Doctor asked, peering over his menu.

She glanced down at the menu she had not been reading and found herself faced with a load of names of food products she had absolutely no idea what they were. Her eyes lingered over one in particular. Her face scrunched in confusion. What the hell was particatenia? Knowing her, if she chose it then it would probably end up being a porcupine fish thing.

She looked up at the Doctor who was studying her with a bemused look on his face. He was _so _up to something. She groaned as she studied the menu once again, "Ok I don't have a clue what any of this is."

He let out a chuckle and she couldn't help but laugh in return, "Well, I'm not surprised. This is food from a different cosmos, but I'm more surprised that you didn't say something sooner."

She looked down as a blush creeped up her neck and she couldn't help but pray that he wouldn't notice. This was embarrassing enough as it was. She hadn't bother mentioning the menu to him because she hadn't even looked at it once she got to the table. No she had been too preoccupied staring at him through lidded eyes, watching his every move and checking for something suspicious.

The reason for the look on his face probably was because of the simple fact that she wouldn't have a clue on how to figure out which of these words were edible foods and which one meant the word breakfast or specials or something else entirely.

"Well, how am I meant to figure out which food I could remotely like?"

The Doctor's eyes lit up and she suddenly had an ominous feeling overwhelm her sense. Whatever was about to come out of his mouth was in no way possible a good thing for her to hear whatever it may be.

"Rose…" He drawled with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"No!" She raised a finger at him, "Whatever you're about to suggest no!"

"But Rose…" He now was a perfect imitation of a small whining child with the puppy dog expression to boot but she wasn't going to let him do this, whatever it was.

"No!"

"Rose…" He pouted, his bottom lip tugging out slightly and she felt her heart break.

She sighed, and looked into those stupid eyes of his with that stupid expression on his face and she suddenly felt herself melt. She was so weak willed. If this weren't the Doctor she would be so ashamed with herself for giving in so easily but this was the Doctor and when he had on _that _expression, she wouldn't be surprised if anyone would cave.

"Fine, I give in. What are you suggesting?"

His grin replaced that adorable pout and the uneasy feeling bubbled within her stomach once more…hmm, maybe she was just hungry. She pushed the thought away and focused once again on the Doctor.

"I suggest that I choose your what you eat." She groaned, putting her head in her hands. This was not a good idea, "Oh come on Rose," A gentle hand rested on top of hers and she found herself forced to look up into his eyes when he brought his other hand to rest under her chin drawing her gaze to focus entirely, "You can trust me…"

'_Not now that I've given you that diary…' she thought to herself, 'If you have read it then this can't be good and there isn't a chance you've not read it…well, some of it at least.'_

But instead of saying that aloud, she let out a final groan and reluctantly said, "fine but if you even dare make me eat something alive or moving at all then you are gonna get one hell of a slap."

He mock cowered and brought his hands up in front of his face to pretend as if he was defending himself. Poorly, she would add but not aloud.

"That's not gonna save you from a Tyler slap."

He shuddered, slowly shaking his head, "No, no don't mention the Tyler slap. I still get nightmares from the one your mother gave me."

"Hey at least she didn't give you the Tyler kiss."

"If your mother ever kisses me then I shall die."

Rose raised an eyebrow, "No regenerating?"

He shook his head profusely, "Nope, I'll just die. Stone cold dead."

"Well that would be a shame…" She teased, "I wonder if I would have the same reaction if I gave you a Tyler kiss."

He gulped, his eyes darting to her lips momentarily before he laughed, "Yeah, well let's not risk it."

She gave an innocent smirk, "Are you sure?"

He nodded, and noticed out of the corner of his eye an approaching waiter. Turning his gaze away from Rose he raised a hand motioning him over.

"Sir, Madam," The waiter nodded and flashed his sparkling white teeth that matched his tuxedo jacket, "Would you like to order?"

The Doctor nodded and began to ramble off a string of words and phrases that Rose could barely make out in his face tone of pace. The waiter wrote down the order, his hand quickly gliding across the page as if it was nothing.

When the Doctor managed to stop talking finally, her mouth was agape and she couldn't believe how long the order was. What exactly had he ordered?

That odd sensation returned as the waiter slowly walked away and the Doctor turned to look at her, a small grin. She gulped. This wasn't a good idea; this really really wasn't a good idea.

What had she just agreed to let him do?

To be continued...

**AN: Who knows what horrors the Doctor could give Rose? Oh wait, I do. Review if you want to find out...**


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: As some of you may know, new USB pen equals me returning to the fanfiction fold and to make up for not being able to update this story for ages I have made this triple it's usual length. Well, almost triple but still, this chapter is nearing 3000 words so be glad. Very glad. So, hopefully this larger-than-usual chapter might provoke some of you who read but don't review my story into reviewing just for the hell of it. Anyway, enough of me, on with the story...**

**Chapter Ten**

Rose ran out of the building as fast as she could, feeling tears well up from her behind her eyes, no longer caring that her feet were aching as she ran street after street in these horrible shoes. She would regret it later, but for now she just didn't care. All that mattered was to get as far away as possible from him.

How could he do that to her? All of it? Did she not even mean a single thing to him? Was she so insignificant in his life that he acted like that? Treated her like nothing?

She turned into a back alley and let herself slump against the wall as the past few hours finally caught up with her. She felt drained, disregarded and dejected as well as any other word beginning with 'd' that could sum up what she was feeling.

Here she was on an alien planet, a thousand miles away from home and she was miserable. How had this day gone from such a bright happy possibility to _this_? She knew why. It was because of _him_. She had never expected the Doctor to ever act like that. She had always expected him to at least respect her but after tonight...

She sighed and choked back a sob. She didn't even know...

He would find her eventually. Even he wouldn't let be on her own on an alien planet. She really wished he would. She wasn't sure if she could look at him again and feel anything but pain or anger.

In just a few hours her life had went from so happy to so horrible. It was ever since he ordered her the food...that was probably the moment in time where everything turned upside down. It all just seemed to go downhill from there...and the most painful reason was that she didn't know why.

Why he would act that way? Why he would ever be so mean to her? Why everything spun out of control?

No longer caring if anyone saw her she let out a sob; a heartrending painful sob and sank to the ground as she finally let out her emotions.

_Several hours earlier..._

Rose scrunched up her face in disgust as the Doctor dangled something he called Tepatica under her nose. It was large, orange and had a similar shape to a carrot. The thing that made it completely different to a carrot was the grey sludge it was covered. If that wasn't bad enough the purple spots that covered it seemed to be drinking it in, almost as if it were still alive (something the Doctor assured her wasn't) but what truly made her stick this in the worst food item she had ever seen list was the repulsive smell emanating from it. A smell which was wafting into her nose as the Doctor bright it as close as possible to her without it actually touching her (something she was thankful for). She held back the urge the vomit, "Urgh! I am not eating that!"

"Come on Rose!" He wined, "It's not that bad!"

"If it's not that bad then you take a bite out of it!" She responded hoping, no praying that he would get it away from her. She wasn't sure if she could handle the smell any longer.

The Doctor shrugged, "Ok then I will!"

He withdrew the food item (If you could call it that) and brought it to his lips, almost hesitating for a moment before he took a large bite out of it. He gave her a small smile as he chewed it, regretting actually eating it. Why didn't he just put it back down? No, he had to be stupid enough to actually eat it. He thought that bad food would put Rose off of him. If his type of food was anything like hers (which in reality it was) then that would mean they had something in common (which in fact they did have a lot in common in fact) but he wanted to make it look like they had less in common than she thought they did so it would show her that they weren't meant to be together (which of course they were...not meant to be together). Most of the stuff on the table were things he had either never eaten before or stuff he knew tasted horrible. He coughed feeling a hair from inside the mouthful of Tepatica brush against the back of his throat.

That was it.

He grabbed a napkin and spat the contents of his mouth into it. Rose raised an eyebrow in triumph, "Ok, that's the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten." He started wiping his tongue with the clean part of the napkin. She just smirked at him, "I'm going to go get a drink. I'll need more than water to get rid of that taste anytime soon." He stood up and turned to walk away before he looked back at her and with a grin said, "Eat up!"

He could hear her mutter, "Yeah right!" under her breath as he went. Maybe this plan was working.

When he reached the bar, it was practically empty save for a green alien drowning his sorrows over what the Doctor presumed to be a lost love. He was pretty sure he was correct when every few seconds that man would wail, 'Kiella! Eh, Kieilla! Un krage sjehdo ud pateketis!' which roughly translated as 'Kila! Oh, Kila!Why did you have to leave me!'

The Doctor sat at a stool, looking over the range of drinks. They served tea here but it wouldn't get rid of the horrible taste in his mouth. Neither would coffee, but he wasn't a coffee person anyway. Although he did enjoy the coco-coffee-corcazana they sold on the planet Pelpat. He smiled remembering the fact they had cats with no noses there. It reminded him of Barcelona and dog with no noses. Dogs were so much better than cats. They didn't try to threaten him whilst wearing a nun's wimple. He really should get him and Rose to visit there soon...maybe when she fallen out of love with him.

That reminded him - the diary!

He fished it out of his pocket, laying it next to the menu in his hand.

"Would you like something to drink?"

He looked up and smiled as the barmaid politely smiled at him, "Oh yes! Of course, can I have..." He glanced at the menu; he knew just the thing to get rid of the taste of sewer from his mouth. Well, actually he knew two things but there wasn't any marmalade nearby so he would have to survive with... "A horalakaa."

She looked surprised, "Are you sure? That is a pretty strong drink. Do you think you can handle it?"

He grinned and winked, "Oh you'd be surprised by what I can handle!"

She nodded before going off to make it. He watched her for a moment before turning back to Rose's diary. Opening it up he read a few pages from where he last left off and found nothing really interesting. That was until he got to a new page and decided that he really needed that strong drink now.

_Dear diary,_

_We went to this planet today. Can't remember it's name but it was all white. A beautiful silky white that just seemed to wrap around you and do you know what it reminded me of? _

_A WEDDING DRESS!_

_Oh my god, it would be a perfect material for a wedding dress so I stole some of it. The Doctor didn't notice. Thank god I wore one of those jackets from the Tardis. You know the ones with the pockets that are bigger on the inside. Hmm...I wonder what's in the Doctor's pockets other than the psychic paper and the sonic screwdriver? I really should check one day. Maybe there's a picture of me in there..._

_I bet you there is a picture of me in there. I mean how else could he have found me on that planet where the people kidnapped me. They worshiped me like a goddess...that was a strange experience. Although I did have to wear that coconut bikini. Didn't realise that they were going to try and sacrifice me of course when they knocked me out after I changed. Although waking up with the Doctor carrying me in a fireman's lift wasn't so bad. Nor was the look he gave me after the lecture of wandering off which made me point off I didn't wander off but was kidnapped. There is a big difference. He did look a little nervous with me in that bikini. One piece of advice; never wear a coconut bikini. Itches like hell._

_Where was I?_

_Wedding dress. Of course! So I was thinking that when me and the Doctor get married..._

"Here's your drink." Smiled the barmaid, "Take it..." The Doctor grabbed the drink and drained it in one go, "Easy."

"Can you get me another one?"

She looked hesitant for a moment before she replied, "Sure."

"Thanks."

He went back to the diary and was horrified to learn that if they indeed got married he would have to live for a month with Jackie in the vicinity so that Rose and her mother could get everything perfected. He would wear a black tux and she would wear a dress made out of the perfect wedding material that would curve in all the right places. It went on to describe (in detail) different aspects of the wedding dress, which he had absolutely no idea about.

It was at that moment he decided he didn't like weddings in the slightest. That and he need to be a bit more forceful in his approach. This infatuation had gone deep. Way deep!

"Here's your..." The Doctor grabbed it out of her hands and drained it - once again - in one go, "Drink."

"Another one, please." He muttered. He knew he was going to need it.

"Ok, but this is the last one I'm serving you. Normally two of those would knock a person out."

He simply nodded and waited as he the drink came to him, putting the diary back into his pocket. He couldn't read anymore. Not now. He dug out some cash and gave it to the barmaid, not counting the amount, "Keep the change."

He walked away drink in hand as the barmaid looked down in shock at the amount of money she had just been given.

--

Rose smiled as he returned and he gave a shaky smile back taking another sip of his drink. The barmaid said two would knock out most people. Fortunately for him it took about ten of them before that level of drunkenness took effect. Well, it wasn't really getting drunk if it didn't actually have alcohol in it...was it?

He ignored the thought and sat down. She reached out and gently placed her hand on top of his. He quickly jerked it away and pretended to take another sip of his drink, "Hey are you okay?"

"Fine. I'm fine." He gave her a smile and decided to dig into his food.

Rose surveyed him with concern. No matter what he said, he was definitely not fine. And, apparently, he was also a slob...

She watched in disgust as he ate his way through most of what was on the table. She tried to eat a few things while he had been away and instantly regretted it so now she just decided she would eat something when they were back on the Tardis. It was probably safer that way. The Doctor on the other hand, was looking fit to eat a horse and Rose suspected that maybe some part of this array of disgusting food there might actually be a horse amongst it. Maybe a space horse at least.

"Eeeht ruuup roise, ifdt guffd frr euug!" the Doctor said with a mouthful of green...meat?

"What?"

He swallowed and took a sip of his strange rainbow coloured drink before letting out a burp. Rose tried to ignore the eggy smell emanating from his mouth, "Eat up Rose, it's good for you."

She decided she would try one more piece of food just because of the look he was giving her, "Ok..."

Why did this suddenly feel like a game of Russian roulette? Her eyes surveyed the mass of food - each strange in its own way. She avoided the stuff she had already tasted and knew for a fact was horrible and landed on something that resembled chicken. She was surprised to find that it tasted like...strawberries.

She dug into it, letting it quench her hunger. She was, unlike the Doctor, able to keep up with her table manners. She never realised how much he ate like a pig...actually she had never seen him eat like this before. Sure she had seen him lick stuff that probably would be best left un-licked and stick his fingers into jars. Marmalade especially. He liked to stuck his finger and eat marmalade if he was thinking, but she had never seen him be such a slob and this was definitely not the first time she had ate food with him in public. So why exactly was he being such a slob now?

She decided it must be because of the diary. Either that or the drink...what was he drinking?

Once he was finished with burping, talking with his mouth full (unsuccessfully) as well as a large number of other less than savoury actions...and desert, the Doctor announced - after cleaning off the crumbs - that they should head over to a party.

Rose instantly perked up at the mention of a party. They hadn't been to a party in ages and the last time they had been gate crashing along with a vampire who was very close to sucking the blood out of her at least ten times if the Doctor hadn't been there to pull him off of her. Well, she had been nipped once by another one of them unexpectedly and she had passed out from blood loss. She had woken up two days later with the Doctor holding her hand and blood dripping into her arm.

She couldn't remember a time she had seen him looking so scared. He had crushed her into a hug and wouldn't let go for twenty minutes. There were - thankfully - no scars left from the biting. Something she had been grateful for. Having two large bite marks on your neck is not a pleasant sight. And her mother would have killed the Doctor had she ever set eyes on them. Thankfully they had healed up by the next time they had visited.

"We haven't been to a party in years, haven't we? Well, it wasn't actually years, but still. It's been ages and Lord Dracula wasn't very hospitable towards us. I mean I can understand being a vampire but once you try t bite a time lord and his assistant then that's just not right."

"Assistant?"

"Friend." He reassured, "You are not an assistant you're a friend. My good friend. My bestest friend. Oh what a good friend you are indeed. We're friends. Can't see us as anything but best friends, can you Rose?" Rose nodded, wondering why he kept repeating the words' friend' in that strange and rather loud way, "Oh what good friends we are? Have I ever told you you're my bestest friend. I can't imagine us as anything more or less than friends."

"Doctor. We're friends. Now what were you saying?"

"About us being friends?" he queried.

She shook her head, "No, before that."

"That we're bestest friends."

She pretended to think for a moment before saying, "A bit before that."

"That you're not my assistant but a very good friend."

"And before that too."

"The party?" Rose nodded, "Oh the party! The party! Well, the city is celebrating Kudansa. It's this festival and it begins tomorrow, but there's this pre-party tonight over at this hotel. The elite of the elite are going to be there so I thought we could rent a room and..."

"A hotel room?" she managed to ask incredulously.

"Yeah, a hotel room and we could head over to the par-"

"But we don't have any clothes." she protested.

"Sure we do." He replied indicating his suit, "So tomorrow we head out to the festival after we have a nice sleep in the hotel room and-"

Rose let out a small laugh and pointed at her outfit, "I'm not sleeping in this dress."

"Oh..." His face fell, slipping into a look of confusion, "Why not?"

"Doctor! I'm not sleeping in _this_ dress."

"Oh please tell me we don't have to..." He gulped, "You know."

Her brow furrowed, "What?"

"Go to..." he trailed away into a groan.

Rose patted his arm gently and nodded. She would almost have felt sympathetic had he not ate like a slob at dinner. She had suffered through bad food so he was going to suffer once more, "Yes, yes we are."

"Please no!" he pleaded.

"We're going to have to go shopping again."

He groaned, before muttering, "That was what I was afraid of..."

To be continued...

**AN: In my mind, the Doctor really hates shopping. Plus whilst shopping it might give him time to realise that he just said hotel room to someone who thinks is in love with him. lol...I can really imagine him being this much of an idiot. lol...so, review if you want to and maybe if I get a larger-than-usual amount of reviews then it might prompt me to keep up with the larger-than-usual length of this stories chapters...lol, that was a really obvious hint. I apologize but to be fair, i have been review deprived for a few weeks so all's fair I say. lol...**


	12. Chapter 11

**AN: I have been so busy this week that I haven't had time to write any new chapters for my stories. Plus I wrote some of the chapters for my other stories when I didn't have a USB pen and I saveed them to the computer. The only problem is I haven't been able to find them. I know they're around there somewhere but I just can't find them. If I haven't come across any of them by tomorrow then I'm just going to rewrite them which is just annoying. Plus like fifteen minutes ago I just broke a filling in my tooth by eating a polo. lol...This really hasn't been a good week for me and I haven't even started on school (which was crap). Sorry, I'm ranting. Anyway, on with story...**

**Chapter Eleven**

Ok, he decided, it wasn't as bad as the first time. He scoffed,_ not as bad - what a lark..._she had forced him to wait last time - only mere hours ago - while she decided on a perfect dress and now, here she was, accompanied by himself and she was practically buying for London. Actually make that the United Kingdom.

He raised an eyebrow as Rose eyes gleamed at the sight of a red dress. By the looks of it, he was sure she wouldn't buy it. It wouldn't be the sort of thing Rose would buy, would it? It wasn't as if it wasn't a nice dress. He was sure it was...a nice dress.

It was long, by the look of it. And it was a deep shade of red, the kind of red that stood out against everything else in the background. Actually it was the kind of red that made everything else in the background look insignificant. It was the colour of blood red roses, the colour of dark cherry lips, the colour of...what was it, he thought to himself. What exactly was the perfect word to describe it?

It hit him in the face like a wet newspaper on a stormy day. It was the colour of passion.

He gulped. Passion.

No, he counteracted, it wasn't the colour of passion. Oh no, definitely no. Really really the opposite in fact because anything Rose wore couldn't be anything to do with a dress that was the colour of passion.

Nope, that was indeed impossible. Rose wouldn't wear something like that. No, he finally concluded, that dress was definitely not the colour of passion. Instead it was the colour of...a juicy red apple. No, not an juicy red apple because then of course a juicy red apple could (down the line) be associated with temptation - the forbidden fruit as it were - and that wouldn't be right. No, it was more the colour of...well, red. It was just a colour and colours didn't have to have meaning, did they?

Rose eyes bore into the dress. It was perfect. She didn't know why, but it was perfect, absolutely perfect in every way possible. The material felt soft underneath her fingertips, like smooth deep silk but it was more than that - it was better than mere silk - it was as if there was something about the way it felt underneath her fingertips...

It wasn't just something she wanted to have. It was something she needed to have.

That thought alone prompted her to rush over to the changing room, leaving a confusing (and slightly uneasy) Doctor, still holding a pile of clothes carefully in his hands, contemplating legging it before Rose came back. Only he knew he would stay because of one simple fact.

It was Rose.

--

Rose stared at her image in the mirror, the red formed against her like a second skin. She was right about the way it felt, almost like silk but not at the same time. It was almost as if the dress was made for her.

She shook that thought from her head. Two years ago, she wouldn't have even dreamed, imagined or contemplated ever being a planet other than Earth travelling with someone other than human and by a dress that was made from something other than...well, anything Earth produced.

She had never imagines wearing a dress like it before, but you only live once and it was unlikely they'd ever be back here again. The only constant planet the ever seemed to have a recurring trend of visiting was Earth and most of those trips the Doctor would prefer to hide in the Tardis rather than face...her mother.

She knew if her mother had ever saw her in this...well, it would be fair to say that the Doctor probably wouldn't be the only one afraid of her mother's every action.

This dress was very...well, revealing was one word that sprang to mind, but it was in a very respectable way. It had a slit up the side, it clung to her, accentuating all the right curves and it tied in a loose knot at her neck. The dress made everything more spellbound. Almost as if it wasn't real.

She smiled to herself; it would drive the Doctor insane. He'd probably be shocked at the mere fact she'd be willing to wear this. He'd complain and tell her to wear something else. Either that or he'd be even more frightened if he ever got round to reading anymore of the diary. She wondered if he'd ever get to the end of it...because he obviously hadn't by the looks of things.

She took in her image once again as her thoughts lingered on the Doctor. It would be so worth it though, just to see his reaction.

It was at that moment she decided that this was one purchase she would definitely be buying.

--

The Doctor groaned as he stood waiting beside the changing rooms. The clothes were beginning to make his arms ache from holding them. He tilted his head and moaned in annoyance, "Rose hurry up!"

The curtain was pulled back and Rose smiled, placing the red dress on the top of the pile of clothes he was holding.

"Come on!" She grinned, dragging him by the arm, "We need to get you some clothes too. So let's buy this stuff so we can get you sorted."

His brow shot up in surprise, "What?"

"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why do I need clothes?"

"If this is as fancy a party as you say it is then we need you in a black suit and tie."

He let out a moan and with the petulance of a small child he demanded, "But why can't I wear this suit?" He paused, pouting, "I like this suit. I want to wear my suit. In case you haven't noticed it's a very nice suit. A brilliant suit in fact. Don't you like my suit?"

"I love your suit, but not when there is a giant marmalade stain on it." she pointed out, "And the chocolate ice cream isn't very helpful either when going in formal wear."

Even though he couldn't see her face, he knew from experience that she was grinning, "I don't see any stain he pointed out."

She stopped abruptly and he almost toppled by the sudden stop. Before he could exclaim she had turned with a wicked smirk on her face, "Here let me point them out for you."

She bit on her bottom lip, trying to suppress the laugh that threatened to teeter. Fortunately for her, the stains were in just the right place to make him feel uncomfortable without it being obvious what she was about to do.

Placing her hand lightly on his upper arm, she gently squeezed the muscle underneath before she moved her hand downwards, feeling his intense gaze upon her; watching her movements as if she was on the verge of attacking him.

"Well," she drawled out slowly, "You have a really long one about here. I think its marmalade. It's a bit sticky." She moved her hand lower and bent down, bringing her hand to his thigh, "And this mark is definitely from that sundae you had yesterday. I told you that you should change your clothes more than one every other day." She grinned and brought up her hands to his, gently moving them upwards so she could see the bottom of his suit jacket, "Oh and there's this one!" He gulped nervously as her hand rested dangerously close to his belt. In fact it was on the open part of his suit jacket, feeling at the material of his shirt, "That's definitely chocolate sauce, don't you think?"

He responded, in a voice that was surprisingly higher pitch than usual, "Is it?" He coughed and repeated, "Is it? I hadn't noticed?" He really hoped she would remove her hand. Who knew what a woman in her state of mind could be like, especially when the close proximity of him to her was involved. It would be a disaster. How would she possibly be unable to lean forward and kiss him considering her extreme obsession of him? Not that he wanted to kiss her, but he was practically trapped holding a pile of clothes. She could almost do anything...

She suddenly pulled back and smiled, "Come on let's hurry up and get you the suit. That one is definitely dirty.

He closed his open mouth, the shock leaving him as he walked forward, almost tripping over himself and sending the pile of clothes he carried everywhere. Luckily he managed to regain his balance at the last possible moment and hurried towards the till, hoping that Rose had not noticed his sudden bout of clumsiness.

He looked down at his arm in passing and was surprised to find that there was indeed a mark there. She had been serious about his suit...where else did she say there was a mark? He cursed himself silently for not paying attention to what she said and instead focusing solely on her face.

"Doctor!" He blinked, looking over towards the source of the voice, "Come on." He trundled over to her, placing the clothes on the counter, mumbling a hasty apology, "What's up with you?" she asked slyly.

His mind seemed to be working slower than usual, he concluded. Even when after seeing the price of the amount of clothes Rose had bought, he had not reacted until he was once again found himself carrying a bundle of bags. When would one woman wear this much in a lifetime? He didn't even want to get into the shoes she had bought, but he knew that she would be complaining in pain in the near future because of foot related issues.

"Ok," she smiled, "Let's get you a suit."

--

He pulled back the curtain, seeing Rose waiting in a nearby chair reading a magazine she had found.

"What about this one?" he asked, hoping she would be happy with it. If he had to try on another suit, he wasn't sure what he would so. Three times was annoying enough, but four times...well that was just ridiculous. Sure the first one had been too large and the second one had ruffles but still, third times lucky.

Rose pulled herself away from a very interesting article on how to tell if he's a Plic. She had absolutely no idea what a Plic was, but it was time consuming enough to try and guess.

She smiled, taking in his appearance, "Nice..." Her eyes trailed over the suit, "Very James Bond."

He grinned, obviously pleased by the compliment, "Really?"

"Really." she assured.

"Ok," he paused, "We can leave now right?" She nodded, causing him to beam as he walked forward, "Brilliant."

She put a hand on his shoulder and coughed back a laugh, "You have to go get changed first so we can pay for the suit."

He looked down, grinning sheepishly, "Oh right..."

He turned on his heel and headed back inside the changing room leaving a bemused Rose to return to her investigation of a Plic was.

To be continued...

**AN: I ended it there because I want to keep this seperate from when they go to the hotel. Ok so, review if you enjoyed...**


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: I really find it easy to write this story. No, really I'm being serious. That used to belong to my Any Questions story but now it's turned into a close second on enjoyment writing scale...what the hell am I talking about? Enjoymetn writing scale...I've finally lost it. It's official. lol...Ok, so thanks to everyone who still reading/enjoying/reviewing/giving me large amounts of money...oh wait that last one was a dream. lol...ok then, on with the story... **

**Chapter Twelve**

By the time they had arrived at the hotel it had almost gone dark. The party was beginning in less than two hours and the guests were already piling in from across the planets. And this was making the Doctor worry ever so slightly because of the small chance - the very small chance - that there wasn't any rooms left.

Maybe he should have booked the hotel earlier, he wondered. Maybe his spur of the moment actions weren't always the best course of action. He didn't want to have to look around hotels, desperately trying to find a room near to the party whilst carrying a load of surprisingly heavy bags around. Who knew clothes could be so heavy?

"I can't believe they sell black converse here." Rose said as they made their way into the lobby of the hotel. The Doctor nodded to the doorman as Rose gave a shy smile, "You'd think on an alien planet that they'd have their own brands of shoes."

"It's a strange universe Rose." He smiled, "A strange and wonderful converse-loving universe."

"Well, at least black converse are better than those ones you're wearing."

He looked past the handful of bags he was holding and pouted at her remark. His shoes weren't that bad, "What's wrong with these ones?"

She joined him as she stared at his feet and laughed lightly, "Doctor I can your toes through them. You really should start wearing socks sometimes."

"This coming from the woman who bought a pair medi-shoes because the heels you bought only hours before had damaged your feet so much that I had to carry you to a shoe store whilst holding a large number of bags full of clothes you had already bought."

"And your suit."

"And my suit!" He frowned, "How are your feet by the way?"

"Much better. Thanks for carrying me to a shoe store so I could buy absolutely brilliant shoes that heal your feet as you walk."

His frown lightened and he mumbled, "You're welcome."

It had been very hard to carry both Rose and those bags at the same time, but he had to do it. She really had been in pain. He did warn her about those heels. They were a killer. Not that he had ever wore them but still.

He was the one who got her to the shoes that sold medi-shoes. They were useful things. He remembered buying them once after piranhas tried to eat off the bottoms of his feet. They didn't get far but it was a nasty looking flesh wound. It looked much worse than it was but still...

At least she hadn't bought the shoes that tried to murder you. Unsurprisingly they didn't sell much after people found out that you couldn't buy them for other people. Although why buy murdering shoes? Why make murdering shoes? Were they really murder shoes if they didn't murder other people? Who knew?

"No really, thank you." She looked up sincerely at him and he found himself suddenly feeling something unusual. It was a feeling he wasn't used to. He couldn't put his name to it, but no matter what it was called it was a nice feeling. She smiled at him and the feeling rose. She leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "You're my hero."

The feeling disappeared, now replaced by a new one. A familiar one. He really needed to stop doing heroic things like carrying girl who were in love with them. It might help his ego but it did nothing to stop their ever-growing adoration of him.

"Uh," he stuttered, a red blush rising from his cheek, "It was nothing."

He walked on, making his way as quickly as possible towards the check in desk. The lady looked up and smiled at him politely. It was a smile reserved for every person she met at that desk. It was a false smile, but he smiled back genuinely in return. It was, after all, only polite.

"Hello sir, madam, how can I help you?"

"We'd like a room."

"Sharing?"

"No." He shook his head, "Two rooms. Next to each other, if possible."

She typed into her computer, the keys rattling slightly as her fingers grazed over them. She frowned a false frown, meant for her job only, "Oh..." Her face scrunched up, "We appear to only have the penthouse available."

The Doctor scratched the back of his head, his hand still clad in bags of clothes, "Right..." He coughed, looking over at Rose who was reading a brochure on the festival. She obviously wasn't paying attention, "Well, does it have two beds?"

She looked at her screen, "No."

"A couch perhaps?"

She turned towards her screen once more and gave him a small smile, "Yes there is a couch."

"We'll take it." He handed over his credit chip, glad that his sonic screwdriver could easily work its magic in getting him money wherever he was. It was all for Rose's benefit. He would show her a great time whilst showing her he was bad company therefore bad boyfriend and husband material. And then she'd fall out of love with him. A very simple plan, "How big is the couch?"

She looked at the screen, "It doesn't say."

"It's not one of those couches where if you try to sit on it, you have to hold on for dear life otherwise you'll fall off of it."

She laughed - a real laugh he thought - and shook her head, "No. Although I do know those couches. Have you ever seen a more pointless creation?"

"Murder shoes." he suggested.

She smiled, the corners of her mouth turning upwards as she tried not to laugh, "I know them. I had a friend who bought them thinking they were the pheromone shoes and he had to beat it with a stick to stop it from trying to eat his feet."

"Really?" He asked. She gave a small nod, "How'd he get rid of them?"

"He had to get his mom to come in and take them away."

"Oh, saved by the mother."

"Exactly." She turned towards the screen again, her professional smile returning, "Would you like a newspaper in the morning?"

"Sure."

"Which one?"

He shrugged, "Any."

She turned away and tapped a few keys on a small device. Suddenly two cards appeared from within it and she turned back, handing them to him, "Here is your key card for you and your..." she nodded towards Rose.

"Friend." He smiled, "That's Rose. I'm John. Doctor John Smith."

"I know."

"You do?"

"It says so on your credit chip."

He nodded, laughing at the fact he hadn't realised it, "Of course. Sorry."

"No need to apologize." She smiled, "I'm Abby and if you have any problems you can come directly to me. I hope you enjoy your stay."

"I hope I do."

"Would you like someone to take those bags from you?"

He looked down and then towards the teleport and shook his head, "Nah. I'll be fine. Thanks."

He flashed her a smile and turned towards Rose, "So ready to go to the room?"

"Sure." She held on to the brochure she was reading, "Who was that?"

"Who?"

"The girl at the desk."

"Her name's Abby."

Rose nodded, pulling a thread of the newly bought jacket she was now wearing, "Right."

He raised an eyebrow but neither of them said anything more and instead walked slowly towards the teleport pad. Rose stared at it with a small slice of doubt apparent in her eyes. The Doctor laughed, "Rose, it's fine. You just step on it and it takes you to your door."

"I just don't like them. They make me feel all funny."

"I know." He looked her in the eye, "It'll be fine. Trust me."

She took a breath and stepped on beside him, closing her eyes as the Doctor pushed a button. A tingly feeling overtook her and she felt as if she was covered in hands, all the fingers moving against her skin very lightly. She shivered. She really hated that feeling.

Someone touched her arm, a concerned face appeared as she opened her eyes, "Hello." he whispered.

"Hello."

"See here we are. Right as rain." He frowned, "You know what I've never understood." She shook her head as he placed the key card in, "The expression right as rain. How exactly is rain right? I mean when it first rained no one said, 'Oh look at that rain. I looks right.' Trust me, I should know. I was there. So how exactly is something as right as..."

The door opened and they both stood there in shock as they took in the room, "Oh my god." Rose whispered, "It's..."

"Big?"

"Yeah..." She gulped and turned to him, squealing, "Oh my god. This is brilliant!"

Before he knew it, she thrust her arms around him and squeezed him so much that he dropped the bags he had been holding for a least an hour in surprise. It felt good for them to be gone from his grip. He felt lighter. He spun her around and grinned as he pulled back.

"This is brilliant," she whispered, staring up at him, "Thank you."

He turned his head and looked at the room. It was a brilliant room, but it wasn't the best thing in the room. This made her happy. A simple room and that was what was brilliant, "Yeah, it's fine." He turned back towards her, looking into her eyes once more, "It's nothing. No big deal."

He gulped, his eyes moving to her lips. What would it be like to kiss them? He pulled back and moved to pick up the bags, "Let's check this place out." He smiled, ignoring her confused look, "The party's going to start soon anyway. We should get ready. I definitely need a shower after carrying these for hours."

"Ah, you've smelt worse."

"Really?" His eyebrows in surprise, "hold on, when have I smelt worse? I don't smell that bad, do I?"

"What about the time with the big green blob thing?"

He frowned, shuddering at the memory, "Don't remind me."

She turned and looked into the bedroom, "Oh my god..."

"What?" He joined her at his side, "Oh..."

He gulped. That wasn't good. No that was definitely not good.

"It's like...the honeymoon sweet or something. Maybe it's like those rooms where those really rich people try and seduce people in."

"It was the only room left," he protested. He didn't want Rose to think he was trying to seduce her. Quite the opposite in fact was his aim. He was trying to stop her wanting him to seduce her. This wasn't going very well. He looked at the room. The silk sheets, the red walls, and the rose petals on the bed...no this was definitely very bad.

He coughed, "Well, you can sleep here. I'm taking the couch. I'll just put the bags down here and I'll be taking a shower."

Rose nodded, trying not to laugh at the deep shade of crimson covering his cheeks. He looked so adorable when he was blushing and talking very fast.

He quickly ran out the room and headed to take his shower. He needed a plan. Maybe the diary would give him more answers...

--

He turned on the water, making sure the door was locked and took out the diary. He needed help, he needed answers, he needed clues…he needed something – anything – to help him get Rose to fall out of love with him. What did she like? What did she hate? What would annoy her? If he annoyed her then she wouldn't be in love with him anymore, would she? Or would it backfire and she'd grow to love those little traits she used to hate?

They said that happened to people in love. You accept them as they are, but that couldn't be true because…then he would be in love with Rose and that wasn't true. She accepted him for who he was, she didn't question what he did…sure she did wonder why he licked the walls sometimes but she didn't question it. She accepted him as who eh used to be and who he was now and he had done the same but that didn't mean he was in love with her. That just accepted each other as they were. Nothing more.

Maybe it was because they were best friends. You had to accept your best friend as who they are. You can't exactly change them…yes, that was it. He was in love with her but as a best friend.

He opened the diary. He really needed help. He was definitely into things analysing too much. He knew what his feelings were.

Rose was his friend. No she was his best friend and he liked her as that. There was noting else too it. Just because Rose was head over heels in love with him, well, he couldn't help that. He just needed to change it. It wasn't good for her to be head over heels in love with him. No it just wouldn't do.

He opened to a few pages after he had finished reading and glanced over a few parts until he finally reached a page decorated with a giant red heart. It drew his attention and he suddenly found himself reading the diary entry properly.

_Dear Diary,_

_I met this guy today. My god, he was hot. Not like Doctor hot but my god did he have some muscles on him! Oh who knew 33rd century guys would look so damn…I mean it was like looking at the body of one of those perfect celebrities. And he was flirting with me. _

The Doctor frowned. When had they met this person? He didn't remember meeting anyone in the 33rd century who was flirting with Rose. Why were they flirting with Rose? They weren't meant to be flirting with his companion. It just went against the rules of time travellers. Maybe he should write that on a sign and hold it behind them wherever they went, 'Don't flirt with the companion.' Where was he when this happened?

_The Doctor wasn't there at the time. He was off getting some part for the Tardis or something._

Oh. That was where he was. Still it didn't give any guy from the 33rd century any right to flirt with Rose. He was looking out for her…as a friend, of course. Who knew what Jackie would say if she found that Rose was flirting with guys from the 33rd century. She'd probably blame him and he'd get slapped and it would all be very unpleasant.

_You know I wonder how the Doctor would have acted if he had been there. It would have been a sight I would've paid to see. Imagine if they got in a fight. The Doctor would probably lose. _

He wouldn't lose…he was stronger than he looked. Wait, why did she think he would lose?

_I mean the Doctor's great and all but he's a bit scrawny and this guy – Ryan was his name – well, he was very very VERY muscled. And the Doctor isn't._

The Doctor looked down/ He was muscled. He was strong. He was not scrawny, was he? Rose wouldn't know he was muscled or not. She hadn't seen him without his shirt but he was a bit muscled. She just couldn't see it because of the suit. He wasn't scrawny though - Never scrawny. You don't run as fast as he could being scrawny.

_The Doctor might even have run away…we're very good at running. Nah, he wouldn't run. The Doctor would just probably give him that look that makes you go weak in the knees and walk away calmly. Or Ryan would've beaten him up. I guess I'll never find out._

He wasn't scrawny…how could she think he'd be scrawny. He looked down at the diary with distain. He wasn't scrawny. Sighing he read a few more pages and found nothing interesting to help him in his fight against Rose falling in love with him.

He turned to the shower and undressed. He looked down at his stomach before getting in. He definitely wasn't scrawny. No, definitely not scrawny.

At least he hoped he wasn't.

To be continued...

**AN: Ah, come on you had to like that ending to the chapter. Now you have to review seeing as I've just left you with the Doctor in the shower wondering if he is muscled or not. Come on, that's worth at least a few reviews. lol...yes, I'm shameless but still Doctor in the shower. Let's all take a moment to imagine...**


	14. Chapter 13

**AN: For the record I don't think the Doctor's scrawny but it just worked well for the story. Hey it brought about the thought of a shower and the Doctor together so having the Doctor called scrawny is sometimes a good thing. lol...anyway sorry for the delay on this chapter. I got ill over the weekend, you know how it goes when you're don't have internet access at home...well maybe you don't but you can imagine the horrors. lol, on with the story...**

**Chapter Thirteen**

The Doctor stepped out of the shower feeling more refreshed. Ah, a good shower always made him feel better. Of course it wasn't as good as the one on the Tardis but at least he didn't smell like sweat anymore. Well, now he smelt like rose...Not like Rose as in Rose, his friend Rose, but an actual rose. Seeing as the shampoo, the conditioner, the body lotion as well as pretty much everything else in that shower was rose flavoured, he couldn't help but smell like rose. Not that the real Rose smelt like roses, but then he had never really bothered to smell her, maybe Rose did smell of roses.

He wrapped a towel around his waist, decided for the final time he was not scrawny - definitely not scrawny - and turned around before instantly raising an eyebrow at a distinct lack of clothes on the ground. He had left them right there along with the diary. The diary was still there but his clothes had now mysteriously vanished.

A sudden thought gripped at him. A thought that horrified him, but she wouldn't do that. Would she? No, not even someone as fixated on all things him - as Rose was - would sneak into the bathroom while he was showering and steal his clothes.

He looked at the diary and gulped. If she had come inn here then she would have saw that. She would've known he had read her most personal and detailed thoughts. A lot of which were about him, but why take his clothes and not the diary.

What if she had taken his clothes and was planning to build a shrine of him?

He shook the thought from his head. He really needed to stop watching movies like that before going to bed. Actually he needed to stop watching stalker films in general. He had only watched it to see what behaviourisms he might expect from Rose if she ever stepped from confused about her feelings for him -something he could easily put right- to stalker in the Tardis, help me, I'm being attacked by a crazy woman then he wasn't sure what he could do.

He was about to march out, walk up to Rose and ask where his clothes had disappeared to when he grabbed on to the door handle and found that the door wouldn't budge.

He frowned. It was locked, but how did Rose steal his clothes if it was locked?

Suddenly a sign grabbed his attention. Where had that come from? He squinted as he read, 'Your dirty clothes have been taken to be cleaned. They will be returned to you within the hour. Any personal items within clothing will not be removed and will also be returned with your clothing. Thank you for showering with us. We hope you have a pleasant stay.'

A small twinge of guilt hit him. He really needed to stop jumping to conclusions. Just because something goes missing whilst showering is occurring, it doesn't always mean that the girl obsessed with you has taken your clothing to build a shrine worshiping you. He nodded to himself; he really did need to stop jumping to conclusions. Maybe she wasn't really in love with him...

His gaze fell upon the diary and a laugh erupted from his throat. Yeah right...if Rose wasn't in love with him then he'd eat his shoes...

He groaned. They took his shoes. He loved his shoes. Why did they have to take his shoes?

He let out one more sigh, before scooping up the diary in his hands and looked around his body attempting to find a place to hide it in case Rose did see it. He sighed. There was nowhere. He'd just have to be quick enough for Rose not to see it.

He unlocked the door and pulled open the door just enough to peer out. His eyes trailed his surroundings, his ears strained to hear the familiar sounds of Rose, his nose twitched trying to smell her nearby whilst he stuck out his tongue ever so slightly to taste the air.

He smiled; she was in the next room. He wasn't sure if it was the room to his right or his left but it was one or the other.

He darted out of the bathroom and practically ran for the bedroom. All the while praying that she had been in the room to his left.

His hand went to grip the handle of the door when suddenly it flew open and he nearly dropped the diary in his other hand in surprise. He recovered quickly enough to hide it behind his back as Rose opened the door wider. She smiled and he gulped as his eyes quickly darted over her, dressed in only a light blue robe.

Her eyes trailed from his feet to his head. He gulped, just realising that he was wearing nothing but a towel. His free hand gripped at it tighter. She blinked, coughing away a blush that had creped up her next as she managed to croak out, "You done with the shower?"

He nodded, "Yeah..."

"You okay?" she asked, placing a gentle hand on his bare arm.

He nodded, trying to keep his gaze on her face. Something - even with his only plutonic feelings - was a difficult feat, "Me? I'm always alright."

"You sure?"

"Yup." He popped his 'p' with enthusiasm, hoping to get inside so he could change into something before he found being with only a towel any more uncomfortable, "Are you going to use it now?"

Her hand was still on his arm. She bit back a grin, noticing his uncomfortable glances towards it. She stepped forward and innocently, "Yeah, I was. Is it any good?"

"Yeah."

"The water's not too..." She paused, licking her lips, "Hot, is it?"

He shook his head, noticing how close she was to him. Hmm, maybe he could check now if she smelt like roses, "Nope not too hot. Not too cold. Just right."

She raised an eyebrow, "Just right?"

"Just right." He confirmed. He descretly sniffed, but found he couldn't smell anything. So much for finding out if she smelt like roses, "You should try it out right now. The party will be starting soon. We don't want you arriving all dirty."

She grinned, "No we wouldn't now." She widened her eyes, pretending to muse to herself, "Imagine if I did go there completely filthy. That wouldn't do anyone any good. I mean I might as well be just naked."

"Well, I wouldn't say naked..." He swallowed, trying to push an image out of his head. Why did she have to say that?

Her fingers tapped at his arm, "I suppose your right. I better go get that shower. Won't be long."

She smiled at him and move towards the bathroom, paused and went back into the room. She came back out with a small bag and smiled at him once again, "Almost forgot this."

"What is that?"

"Oh just the usual stuff a girl needs to look respectable." She frowned, "What's that behind your back?"

"What?" He gasped out, pressing the book closer ot his back; willing for it to magically become invisible, but if that ahppeneed then he wouldn't be able to read it. And what if he lost it? Then that wouldn't do him any good.

"Behind your back?"

"Nothing." He cursed himself silently. He said that too fast, "It's nothing."

She knew exactly what it was. It was the diary. At least this confirmed he was reading it. She stepped forward, feigning innocence, "Oh come on, you can tell me."

His eyes darted around the room, searching for an answer, "It's a surprise."

Her face lighted up. It was a lie, but she'd play along for the fun of it, "It doesn't look a surprise."

"Doesn't it?"

"No. It looks like some sort of book."

"Well, it contains what my surprise for later is." Hopefully she'd buy that. He silently prayed she would buy that, leave him alone so he could hide the diary, change out of his towel and figure out how he could make sure his Make-Rose-Fall-Out-Of-Love-With-Him plan, well he needed to come up with a better plan, but still.

"Oh really?" She asked innocently.

He nodded, "Yes, so I'll just go in here." He pointed at himself and then towards the bedroom, "And you go in there." He then pointed at Rose – who was grinning at him – and then at the bathroom.

"What if I want to go in there?" She pointed towards the bedroom.

"You don't want to go in there." He simply stated.

"Why wouldn't I want to go in there?"

"Because…" He scratched at his head, found nothing and then decided to go with the only answer he had - the answer he was probably going to get slapped for.

"You need a shower. Badly Rose. I didn't want to say anything before but you stink. And I mean stink. Really stink. " He gulped. She mouth opened in shock. He gulped again, "Well, not stink exactly. Sweat is perfectly natural. Actually sweat is good. Sweat occurs all the time. You sweat when you run and we run a lot. You sweat during any physical exertion actually…uh, when you jump or hop. Remember hopping." Rose glared at him, "Or not. And you sweat when you're hot. Hell, you even sweat during sex."

His eyes widened, realising he had just mentioned a word he had not expected to mention, "Not that you've had sex. I mean you probably have had sex, have you? No, that's not any of my business, but I just mean you obviously haven't been sweating because you've had sex. You know, seeing as I've been the only one around and we haven't had sex. Not that we ever would seeing as we're friends. -Very good friends; friends that would never have sex with each other because we're friends. Uh, not that we would with the whole best friends thing." Maybe he was saying 'friends' too much? "You've probably…uh, well, it's probably just because it's warm. I mean that's the reason why you've been sweating. It is warm. Very warm in fact, it is warm isn't it?"

He sighed, "I should shut up now." Rose nodded, "Uh, I'll go in there now and you can go have a shower."

He stepped past her, practically running towards the bedroom. He breathed a sigh of relief as he closed the door. He really needed to learn when to shut up.

--

By the time had finally came out of the bathroom again the Doctor had changed into his new clothes, dabbled with cologne, read a few more - somewhat terrifying - extracts of Rose's diary and decided that once and for all he would probably need to become less appealing to her.

He was contemplating this fact as he stared in the mirror. How could he become less appealing? What could he change? He couldn't help that this regeneration had made him good looking.

Very good looking, he decided as he looked in the mirror, Very good looking indeed.

It wasn't as if he could change anything. Although he did understand after an hour of staring at himself why she had fallen for his good looks. That with his brilliant wit, his charming smile, his great hair, his all knowing intellect, his thin but muscled body (definitely not scrawny), his sparkling white teeth and that with...well, everything about him, who couldn't fall in love with him after a while?

How could he blame her for falling head over heels for him? It was a seemingly impossible not to.

Curse whoever decided to make this regeneration foxy...wait, where had the word foxy come from? Why did that seem vaguely familiar? He wouldn't use the word foxy? Well, maybe he was that...but foxy?

A sudden memory hit him. A memory that was not his own...

_"Ooh, he's slim. And a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside your head..."_

_His voice...when Cassandra was in him. She said that to Rose. No, wait he said that to Rose...no, well, it wasn't his own body but..._

_"You've been looking... you like it."_

Cassandra! Oh this was probably her fault. She had probably messed with Rose's head after being stuck in there for so long and then when she transferred over shyer was susceptible to whatever he was saying...well, what she was saying. Well, what he was saying because she was saying because she was in his body...

He looked in the mirror again and yelped, toppling backwards over a small chair as Rose's image suddenly appeared in the doorway.

She rushed over, her robe rustling as she quickly made her way over," Doctor, are you alright?" He blinked. She placed a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at her whilst trying not to laugh at the look on his face, "You alright?"

He nodded, "Yeah. You took me by surprise."

She let out a laugh, knowing that he was okay meant it was okay to laugh, "Oh I bet you did. Are you always going to do that?"

He frowned, looking up at her, "What?"

"Fall every time I enter a room? You did it on the Tardis as well and when you were in my room. "

"I guess I have a knack for falling."

"You sure seem to." She pressed her other hand against the back of his head, "Does that hurt?"

"What are you doing?" His eyes moved between each of the hands, his gaze fixing on the one lightly holding his cheek.

"Checking you haven't hurt yourself." She smiled, and pressed down on the back of his head, "Does that hurt?"

"Not much."

She leaned away from him, her hands moving away from him to, "Ok then, so when do we have to be there?"

He raised an eyebrow, slightly relieved and disappointed by the sudden loss of contact, "What?"

"The party? What time do we have to be there?"

He looked over at the wall clock, trying to remember what the difference the numbers had to a normal earth clock, "Uh about an hour?"

"An hour!" He looked over in surprise as Rose quickly got to her feet, "Ok, I need to get ready. I still have to fix my hair. Ok, an hour?" He nodded again as he got up, "An hour!" Maybe it would be better to stay very still, "Ok, I need to go get ready. Ok...you are positive that you're okay?" He nodded again, slightly fearing for his life, "Ok."

"Ok." He nodded. Maybe if he kept nodding she wouldn't notice his fear...

"Ok." She took one last look at him and ran out of the room. He was guessing she was going to go and get ready.

He sighed a sigh of relief and turned to the mirror again. Where had he been?

"Where's my dress?" He jumped in surprise, his head turning at the loud yell. He was about to answer back when she then shouted, "Nevermind."

He decided that never again would he be anywhere near a woman running late again. Actually how long did it take a woman to get ready? He looked over his shoulder. Maybe he didn't really want to know...

To be continued...

**AN: Right, so isn't it funny when the Doctor digs himself into a corner? I think it is. Escpscially when he ends up rambling (and insulting) and looking like there's no escape to his never ending ramble. If you agree (or if you don't) then review and tell me why...or you could just review about the chapter anyway. It's up to you...**

**AN2: Oh and for the record, I don't think Rose would react so extreme to only having an hour to get ready and everything but I just wanted the Doctor feeling slightly scared. lol...dunno why, I just wanted him a little scared. Maybe it'll set up the next few chapters (For which I have no ideas but then again I always write whatever comes to mind when my fingers are typing. If only I could plan out a story...lol) Well anyway, I'm gonna shut up now :)**


	15. Chapter 14

**AN: Yeah, I should have updated sooner but coursework - that evil thing - got in the way. Trust me when I say there was a lot of coursework so here I am, once again, with a new chapter. It's shorter than the last one, but it's kind of a filelr chapter and next week I'm off so I can write a really long chapter to make up for it. Maybe even two really long chapters if I have time...So anyway on with the story...**

**Chapter Fourteen**

The Doctor twiddled his thumbs subconsciously as his eyes stared at the pure white ceiling, trying to find any spec of dirt on it. So far he was unsuccessful...bored; very bored indeed. He sighed, forcing his eyes away from the ceiling and decided that for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes he would inspect the room.

That took him about two minutes and he still found nothing remotely interesting from his repeat trips over and back, around, up and down and possibly every other direction his feet could take him in the room so he one again found himself sitting on the sofa, twiddling his thumbs and waiting for Rose to finally emerge from the bedroom.

He let out a sigh. Maybe he could go to the party by himself and leave her a note with instructions on how to get there... He shook his head at the notion. No, he wouldn't leave Rose here. Firstly she would kill him for leaving her behind. Well, she'd probably initiate the death with a Tyler slap first and that would probably kill him by itself and he didn't want to go through the unpleasantness of the Tyler slap anytime soon.

And secondly, he didn't want to go on his own. This was a party and he wanted to impress. Sure he had his harming wit and dazzling smile, but at least with Rose he could show himself off by showing her off. A man can be judged (at times) solely on the company he keeps and it wasn't as if anyone could say Rose wasn't a pretty face.

She had a nice face in fact, a very pretty face, a beautiful face if he was being honest. There was the hazel eyes – windows to the soul and what a good-hearted soul she had if her eyes had anything to do with it – and then she had nice eyelashes; very luscious lashes. Plus her smile! Whenever he saw her smile, well, he couldn't help but return it. Her smile literally lit up a room…at least in his eyes it did. No matter how dark and depressed and dreary and…he was definitely using too many 'd' words, he thought to himself, but no matter how dull – another 'd' word! – A room was, it was always made brighter when she entered it and gave him that dazzling – and again - smile.

And then there was what made the smile – her lips. Those…

He shook his head. _No_, he chastised himself; _I can't be thinking thoughts like that._

He sat up abruptly when from out of the silence he heard Rose all, "I'm ready!"

_Finally! Seriously how long does it take women to get ready? You'd think that…_

Next thing he knew, the door to the bedroom was opening and out walked Rose and he suddenly found himself losing the ability to think. His mouth hung open in shock.

Rose – his Rose – was standing there. The red dress hung low; it lung to her accentuating her curves in all the right places. The slit up the side exposed just enough of her leg, giving her modesty and a somewhat alluring appeal. He could see the red of her heel and figured her feet must have recovered from their earlier bout of pain. And from her neck hung a silver chain, with a small red ruby attached to it.

His eyes cast over her once more and he gulped, trying to swallow the odd feeling he had in his stomach. Well, not his stomach exactly but it was emanating from somewhere around that area – a bit more to the left maybe – but it was an odd, unfamiliar sensation nonetheless. He tried not to wonder what it signified.

Rose smiled nervously, fiddling with the necklace hanging loosely against her neck, "So how do I look?" He opened his mouth, expecting words to come out but instead found himself giving an odd noise. Rose took this to be a bad sign, "Oh, it's not that bad. Is it? I mean I know it's not something I usually would wear but this is a party after all and I thought that it couldn't hurt to try something new. Is it okay?"

The Doctor decided that his ability to speak had also disappeared so instead opted to simply nod his head.

"So, it's okay?" she asked again for clarity.

He nodded again and let out a squeak, "Yep, definitely fine."

Her smiled widened, filling up her whole face, "Ok, we're not late, are we? Should we get going?"

He nodded and attempted words again after a small clearing of the throat. His voice was oddly higher than usual, but it went unnoticed by Rose, "Nah, of course we're not late. Well, not too late. It's always good to be fashionably late." He paused, what had been her second question? "Uh, should we get going?"

Rose bit her lip in amusement, "I just asked you that." She pointed out playfully.

"Did you?" His brow rose, "Oh, well, I guess we should get going."

"Hold on, just let me get my bag."

He nodded, "Sure. Ok."

She disappeared into the bedroom and he let out a breath he had not noticed he had been holding. Well, that was…

What was that?

He didn't even know. The dress was…and she was…but it wasn't as if he was…you know, like that with her. She was his friend – his best friend – and he was trying to help her. You know, fall out of love with him, wasn't he?

He scrunched up his face in confusion. No, of course he was trying to stop her falling out of love with him. He was helping her, so they could continue travelling through time and space with his best friend; Rose was his best friend after all, without the fear of him jumping her. No, wait her jumping him.

He shook his head, trying to clear it. Now he was mixing up his words. That wouldn't help him. He really needed to just stop thinking. Yeah, that was it, he was thinking too much; over-extenuating himself and that wasn't good for him. Even all-knowing Time Lords needed a break from thinking sometimes.

Rose returned from the room with a small bag in her hand. Well, it was more of purse, the Doctor contemplated. His eyes wandered over her dress once more.

_Yep, he really needed to stop thinking. Thinking was bad. Thoughts were bad. He really needed to just stop thinking. Yes, he needed to clear his mind. Clearing his mind was god; thinking was bad._

"You look snazzy." She commented, taking in his black suit. He looked different without the brown pinstripe one on him.

His face was blank, "Snazzy?"

"Yeah, very James Bond."

He ran a hand through his hair, "Well…" he gushed, "I've always been a – really?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if-"

"How exactly do I look like him?" he interjected.

Rose rolled her eyes. _Oh god_, she thought, _I've inflated his ego again._

"I'll tell you later." She muttered, "We're late."

"No Rose, we're _fashionably_ late."

"That's still being late though." She stuck out her arm, "Care to accompany me to the party, kind sir?"

He eyed her arm warily before slipping his arm through it, "Let's go!"

Everything would be fine as long as he didn't think. How difficult could that possibly be?

To be continued...

**AN: And the party is up next. I wonder what could possibly go wrong? Or what the Doctor could possibly do wrong? Who knows? Review...**


	16. Chapter 15

**AN: Argh...I've ahd to rewrite this chapter a lot hence the slight delay. I've been doing that a lot - rewriting that is. I can't seem to get my for this story (aswell as others). This chapter actually started off with a completely different thing happening, but then I decided I wanted a...and I dread having to use this word, cute - there I said it, now I need to go and block my speaking of that word from my mind - interaction between the Doctor and Rose so I put it in. Anyway enough of me, on with the story...**

**Chapter Fifteen**

Rose gasped, "Oh my god…" The Doctor grinned at her; noting with enjoyment that he had never seen her eyes wider, "Oh my god…"

"You've already said that." He pointed out playfully, snapping her out of her daze.

She gestured to the room next door after reluctantly trailing her gaze away from the window, "Oh my god. Have you seen this place?"

He looked out the window, nodding his head contemplating, "Yep, I appear to be seeing the room in all its glory. It's okay." Rose smacked him on the chest, "What?" he protested.

He shot her a feigned hurt look and she rolled her eyes in response, "So who are we?" she asked.

"Well, I'm the Doctor – hello!" He gave her a little wave and she resisted the urge to slap him in the face. He gestured to her, "And you are Rose." She raised an eyebrow; he gulped, "Ok, we are Sir Doctor and Dame Rose. High society, remember that. Just nod your head when you hear someone talking pretentiously."

She nodded her head, "Yeah, I've got that down. I've had enough practise with you."

He placed a hand above his chest, and sighed dramatically, "You wound me!" Rose smiled, and his face lit up, "So, what else do you need to know?"

"I don't know. Don't drink too much. Don't dance on the bars. Don't pay attention to rambling two hearted aliens."

"Rose Tyler," gasped the Doctor, "Are you suggesting I ramble?"

"No," she said innocently, "Of course not!"

"Good." He gave a sharp nod, "Oh and if you plan on dancing on the bar, just wait about an hour. That's usual about the time for these guys to hit the hard stuff…well, hard." He smiled at the thought, "Hard stuff hard…"

"Ok anything else?"

"Don't…" He raised a finger at her; pointing in warning, "put on a posh voice. Just talk normally."

"Why would I put on a posh voice?"

"One word…no, make that two words, no, I change my mind back. One word – Scotland." He frowned, "Maybe I should've said werewolf. And then there's always Queen Victoria or it could have been the obvious bad Scottish accent but then there's always…"

Rose tried not to laugh as he rambled on to himself. He went on for a while like that; she didn't attempt to listen. She had learned from past experiences that it was pointless. No, nodding occasionally and waiting for the hand exaggerated hand gestures to stop was a more effective way of finding out when exactly the ramble ceased to be a ramble.

"…No, I'll stick to Scotland." His face became serious again, and he pointed at her once more, "One word Rose – Scotland."

"Right Scotland. Got it. Now should we get-"

"But Rose, you don't get it, do you?" She nodded, about to glaze over the subject again," No Rose, don't you remember? That horrible attempt at a Scottish accent."

"I remember." She replied, "It was one time. Not planning to try and speak Scottish anytime soon."

"Oh," He shrugged, "Okay."

"So we should head in?" He nodded and they smiled at each other, "Let's head in then."

Hand in hand they walked in together. As soon as they walked through the door, they found themselves facing a giant spotlight. What was it? Were they in trouble? Had they found out that they weren't meant to be here?

Rose blinked, her eyes surprised by the burst of light now trained on them. She squeezed the Doctor's hand, silently asking him what the hell was going on. She felt him squeeze back lightly, and his head leaned down near her ear as he whispered, "Just go with it."

She understood what he meant and smiled. The light eased off slightly and she could one again see in front of her – barely! She could make out steps, red-carpeted steps. 'Very posh', she thought to herself.

The Doctor urged her forward and she surreptitiously looked down in order to make sure her descent down the stairs didn't end in disaster.

The Doctor gave a little wave, pretending that he knew somebody in the distance. No one would know who he was waving at, but none of them would guess it was just a wave directed to nobody and no one.

He had forgotten about this entrance. He should have taken them in the side entrance. Not as glamorous, but less attention. Less flashing bulbs trained on them. Too late to change that now, he just hoped Rose wasn't feeling unnerved by it all.

When they finally made it to the bottom of the steps, she glanced back over her shoulder and found that another surprised couple were going through the same ordeal…not that she and the Doctor were a couple.

She leaned up and whispered, "What was bloody hell was that about?"

He shrugged muttering, "High society, what can I say?"

"My mum would go mad-"

"She isn't already." He exclaimed, "News to me."

"-with excitement if she knew I'd just got photographed as if I was a celeb or something." She waited for the Doctor to reply, but instead found him staring out at all the dancers, "What?"

He turned his gaze away and settled on her, "What?"

"What?"

He raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"What?"

He shrugged, "What?"

"Wh- no ok, we're going to be doing that all night. No more saying what."

"What's wrong with saying what?"

"What's wrong with saying what at this moment is that all we seem to say is what."

"Well, what is a good word. Think of all the other ways you can say what and you'll find that what is not an easy word to replace. You can't just who, where, why, when or how instead of saying what. It just wouldn't do. And then if there were no 'what' then there wouldn't be the 5 w's, but there would be only four and a 'h'. That wouldn't be good, so let us in the future continue say what before we all decide that what is a redundant word which I just think we've covered isn't. Imagine the horrors of the 4 w's instead of 5 w's."

She stared at him for a moment, wondering when exactly he had lost it before deciding that she couldn't remember a time when he seemed sane. She also had not paid any attention to pretty much anything within that ramble so after a moment's pause she blatantly asked, "What?"

He laughed, "Ok, no more saying what."

"Good." She stated.

"Good."

"Very good."

"Very good indeed."

"I think it's starting again." She grinned, "Only this time it's good instead of what."

"Rose, if we stop saying good then how are we meant to show if something is good. I mean sure there are other words; great, brilliant, okay, fanta-" He stopped mid phrase, "Fantas-" Rose watched as he made a weird face, "Fantas- no, I still don't have the teeth for it." He let out a sigh, "I miss that word. I miss being able to say that word, but if you don't have the teeth-"

"You don't have the teeth." finished Rose, receiving a smile in return.

"Yeah, but there are other words as I was saying before. Interesting, brilliant – that's always a good word – superb, ingenious, glorious, per-" He suddenly found his words muffled as Rose clamped a hand over his mouth. He tried to say 'what' but it came out as more like, 'whrmff'.

"I think we get the point." She smiled, "Don't you?"

Deciding that attempting to speak one again wouldn't help him sound coherent; he decided to simply nod his head. Rose removed her hand from his lips and he took in a deep breath, "You know Rose you could have nearly suffocated me there." She shook her head, throwing him a look, "No really, what if I suddenly forgot how to breathe through my nose." Her look became a glare, "And if I couldn't breathe then imagine how awful you would feel. You'd pretty much…" He looked down as Rose glare finally wormed its way into his conscious, "Ok I'll stop now." He dared a look at her face and found her smiling. It would probably be best to mend fences even if it didn't go with the plan, "Care to dance?"

"Sure." He took her hand, leading her towards the dance floor, "You do know how to dance? Don't you?" She asked playfully.

He feigned hurt, "Oh how you wound me, Rose! I am a great dancer, a brilliant dancer, I am a whirlwind on the dance floor, and a- "He caught her glaring at him again, "I'm pretty sure I know how to dance It can't be that hard. I did it in the last body so I'm sure I can do it in this one."

"I'm sure you can if your hearts beats out a samba." Rose muttered under her breath.

"What?" He asked her…had he just heard her say something about a samba? No, she wouldn't expect him to do a samba because well…it wasn't as if he couldn't do a samba, but the, uh, the music wasn't right. It was too slow for a samba or too fast, it just wasn't right. Wrong tempos can mess up dances and uh…

"Nothing," was her only reply. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, no sambas.

The music was slow, and one hand entwined in the others whilst the other hand rested on their partners hip. He suddenly couldn't remember why he had decided to dance, and he was vaguely aware that if she were madly in love with him then this wouldn't really be helping her in the slightest. He shuffled forward and forgot all about what he had been thinking.

They easily found a slow rhythm. The Doctor wondered for a moment if he should strike up a conversation, but found that everytime he turned his head to look at her that her gaze was elsewhere. Unbeknownest to him, Rose was giving the exact same problem.

Finally their gazes crossed and he found himself smiling a smile that mirrored her own. Their eyes locked and for a moment the world stilled. There was no music, no crowds, no ringing of laughter and enjoyment of others in their ears, there was no thoughts; there was just this. It was just him and her dancing in a world of their own and neither one noticed as one song moved into another.

It wasn't until someone brushed into them that they snapped out of their reverie. They sprung apart, almost like guilty children with their hand aught in the cookie jar.

"Oh sorry," said a man from beside them, "Didn't see you there.

"It's fine." Rose reassured, feeling a blush on her cheeks. Her eyes flickered over to the Doctor and she noticed he wasn't looking at her, but instead was looking at his converse clad feet.

She was about to open her mouth to say something before he looked up and interrupted, "Let's go get a drink." He smiled tightly, "Can't spend the whole night dancing."

She shook her head, "No of course not." They stared at each other for a moment, "Let's get that drink then."

He nodded and she looked away, "Right…"

To be continued...

**AN: Review if you enjoyed...**


	17. Chapter 16

**AN:Sorry, I'm a bit later than usual in posting but I have not been able to get to the library recently. It's a miracle that I'm here now. lol...ok, so at one point in this story I jump ahead a bit into the night. Just so that there is a better time shift so the story can progress, but I just thought I'd mention seeing as it's mainly been one event after the other here. ok, so on with the story... **

**Chapter Sixteen**

The Doctor decided it was time to put his plan into action. It was time. Well, it had to be time. There wasn't much else he could actually do instead. Well, he could just as easily drop the plan and spend a nice evening with Rose but then he would still be left with the small problem of Rose being madly and insanely in love with him and that would just be a cruel action on his part if he let that continue.

Now the plan…what was the plan? It seemed to change with every new extract he read from her diary. At least there was only a few pages left of him to read of, but with Rose so close by, it would look suspicious if he suddenly decided to bring out a small book that look suspiciously like her diary – her missing diary. Yes, definitely not a good idea so it would be best to just come up a plan and stick to it. Maybe avoiding the temptation (and slight fear) that came hand in hand with her diary would help him.

_No distractions. _His eyes lingered over to Rose, who was once again, playing with the chain of her necklace - a drink in one hand and her eyes on the dance floor.

_No distractions,_ he repeated inside his head whilst tearing his eyes away from her.

The plan…he needed to focus on creating a plan. Maybe he could make Rose fall in love with someone else. No that would be too troublesome. If she did fall in love with someone else then she would leave him and he didn't want that. The only other alternative to her leaving would be to bring the guy on board and…well that would probably be even worse. No Rose or Rose smooching with a guy every two seconds on _his_ Tardis…both were disastrous scenarios but the 'no Rose' one would probably be worse.

Ok, definitely no trying to make Rose fall in love…but maybe he could try to get her to be more interested in other men…

Yeah, that could work. She could end up flirting with other men, and she might set her interest off of him, but it wouldn't jeopardize their friendship, as she would be only flirting with them. She wouldn't be falling in love with them and deciding that her life would be better spent living happily on Earth.

It wasn't him being selfish. Rose Tyler was destined for so much more than the live he could never have. She was brave and intelligent and…she has so much potential for good. She healed him when he was falling apart and that was what she wanted to do – help people. With him, she was doing that, this life gave her the chance to do that…therefore he wasn't being selfish wanting her there in the slightest.

No, he was being supportive and very beneficial to the helping cause. Rose was happy with the life they had. She was happy travelling through time and space with him. He was happy for her to be there ergo this was not him being selfish in the slightest.

There was always the third option. He could flirt with people. It would be risky, there might be consequences, but he would have to do it if push came to shove. If he flirted with other people then Rose would realise that he didn't see her in that way. It might be perceived as somewhat drastic but it had to be worth it. Right?

"Rose," She turned smiling to him, "I'm just going to pop to the loo."

Her eyes widened and she gripped at his arm lightly, "You can't leave me here by myself!" she whispered harshly.

"Rose, I'll only be gone for a minute. Just don't wander off. And I mean it this time." He pointed at her and decided to annunciate his point, "Don't. Wander. Off."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes, "But don't be gone too long. The blue alien keeps eyeing me up. I almost regret wearing this dress."

He wanted to answer, but suddenly found himself distracted as she waved her hand at the dress, emphasising her point so instead he ended up mumbling, "Uh, yeah. I've, uh…toilet." Rose gave him a curious look, "Bye."

Once he got in there, he decided that maybe he needed one last look at the diary. Yeah, one last look. He would have to be quick though, for obvious reasons. Firstly because he didn't want Rose to wonder what was taking him so long? Secondly, because he didn't want to be beat up for reading in a male multi-species restroom. He had learned the latter lesson the hard way and he in no way wanted it repeated.

He pulled the diary out of his pocket – _Thank Rassilion for spatial trans-dimensional suit pockets – _and opened it on the last diary entry.

_Dear diary,_

_  
The Doctor's acting strange. I'm worried…_

He frowned, Rose was concerned? About him? Why? He turned the page to the next entry and began to read.

_Day - whatever in the Tardis, diary entry – who knows what number._

_The Doctor's up to something. Normally I wouldn't mind him acting weird (I've seen him lick the walls enough times to think he's acting weird) but this is different, He's hiding something from me…I might have to try and find out what that is._

_He keeps avoiding me. I mean, that's not normal for him. Usually he's always around me trying to get me to visit another place so we can go off and have another adventure. He's adorable when he does that. He's such a child, but now…well, he's acting a bit shady. _

_I hope nothing's wrong…_

When did this happen? When did he start acting shady? He wasn't shady. Not shady in the slightest! Yet here she was accusing him of being shady. The nerve of her!

_Dear diary,_

_Ok, I need to breath. In. Out. In…wait, why am, I writing that down? That's something the Doctor would do, not me…ok. I'm so excited! I think – and this is a big 'I think' – that the Doctor is in love with me!_

The Doctor's eyes widened, "What!" he shouted, gaining an odd look from the man just entering, who promptly backed out again after noticing the look on the Doctor's face.

_It makes perfect sense. He's avoiding eye contact with me. He NEVER avoids eye contact with me. And there is these awkward pauses…I mean, for the man who never stops talking, that's some achievement._

Never stops talking? How dare she! He didn't talk too much, did he? The Doctor thought for a moment, letting his mind wander back to conversations he had had in recent situations. There may have been the occasional tendency to rant, ramble, rave more than others, but that was…well, that was…oh Rassilion!

"I talk too much…" he whispered to himself, staring at his image in the mirror. He let out a small sigh.

_Ok I don't know what to do. I mean if he is in love with me then what do I do? How do I find out what he's thinking? _

_Diary! His diary! I'll steal; no I mean, borrow his diary. I won't read it all. Just anything recent mentioning his feelings for me. I wouldn't even dare try and read his diary. That would be just too personal. I'd feel to guilty about that._

The Doctor closed the book shut, a wave of guilt washing over him. He shouldn't be doing this – it was wrong. This was her diary – Rose's diary! – and he was reading it. He should be ashamed; no, he was ashamed. When did he become this person?

No more! This was it! Finito! No more reading her diary! Although at least he knew why she had found his in her room. Not that he wrote in it much anyway, but she wouldn't have read what he did. She wouldn't have read each passage from the beginning. She would have just read the last entry – if it hadn't been written in Gallifreyean – and left things there, but he had to be the one who messed things up. He had to do read everything. Well, he wasn't even going to read the last passage now. There was only a few pages left to read but was he going to read them?

NO!

He still needed to make her fall out of love with him, but he was not going to read anymore of her diary.

He walked out of the men's room, confidence raining off of him as he attempted to diminish the feelings of guilt that now plagued him.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Rose, watching the Doctor return, "You look…funny."

"Me? I'm fine! Perfectly splendid. Nothing new to report. Haven't read anything I shouldn't have been reading. I am fine. Great, in fact. Good. Very good, if I'm honest. Actually more than good-"

"You're doing it again."

He swallowed, "What?" he managed to gasp out.

"Repeating the word good. Remember earlier?" Rose studied his reaction for a moment. He was acting strange. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on his arm, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Rose, I'm-"

"Doctor, really though. We can leave if you want to or if you're not feeling well."

He relaxed a little, "I'm fine. Really Rose." He gave her a smile, "Really."

"Good."

"Very good."

"Not again." She said playfully, rolling her eyes in the process.

------

_A little while later…_

The Doctor saw a tray of cheeses being carried by a nearby waiter. As the man passed, he reached out a grabbed a few, popping one in his mouth, "Mmmm..." He groaned in appreciation, "Cheddar." He offered her piece, "Want some?"

She shook her head, laughing lightly, "No thanks."

"My god!" The Doctor exclaimed. Rose turned her head to find him staring at a piece of cheese like it was the love of his life, "This is delicious. I'm not even sure what type of cheese this is but my god! This is what heaven is made of Rose."

"You two want a room?" she joked.

The Doctor looked at her strangely, "Don't be ridiculous Rose, "Why would I need to get a room with the…" He trailed off as something on the other side of the room got his attention, "It can't be…"

"What?" Rose followed his gaze, but couldn't distinguish who or what he was looking at through the jumble of people laughing, conversing, "What is it?"

Ignoring Rose, he suddenly took a step forward, pushing his way through the crowd. He stopped after a few seconds, noticing Rose wasn't following him and went back, gently pulling her along with him, "Come on Rose."

She couldn't help but wonder what had caught his attention. Knowing the Doctor it could be anything. She just hoped - for once - it wouldn't be an alien, or to be more specific, an alien either out to destroy the world, turn the planets people into slaves or any number of other things involving injuries, the Doctor and running. She _really_ did not want to run in these shoes.

"Doctor what is it?" Rose asked as he gently wove them through the crowd. She couldn't help but notice a few stares directed at her by some humanoid looking aliens. She wasn't so sure about the other aliens; it was hard to tell if they were staring or not as well, "What did you see?"

"I think…" he looked over his shoulder, "…that I may…well, I think I have…who knows if my eyes are deceiving me…but anyway, I think I saw someone I used to know."

"Good or bad someone?" She asked warily. She had heard a bit more about his past after she had met Sarah Jane Smith, in fact she had asked and he had talked…for once. He hadn't rambled (much) but he had given her a bit of his past and she had been grateful for it. She also knew he had enemies from his past, more than she would have ever realised.

"Well…" He let out a noise she couldn't identify. That wasn't a reassuring sign.

"And that translates as?"

He shrugged his shoulders, and once again made the noise.

"Right…" Rose muttered, letting out a sigh, "Good to know."

The Doctor came to an abrupt halt, and she would have knocked into him for the fact he had tugged her hand, bringing her to stand beside him. She looked up to find him staring at a figure a few feet away; its back was turned.

"Well, well, well…" He drawled out, "Look who we have here…"

The figure turned around and instantly looked him over. Rose saw herself staring a beautiful woman with jet-black hair tied partially in a clip with an odd yet enthralling gem in it. Her figure was clad with a deep purple dress, covered in unusual yet breathtaking designs. She could almost pass for human – almost – had it not been for her eyes. No, nowhere on earth would those eyes be thought of as human, not with the purple and red battling within her orbs. Human, was one thing she definitely was not.

The woman tilted her head, studying the Doctor before her face broke out in a grin. Rose noticed the Doctor's follow suit and felt a pang of frustration hit her. Once again, she felt left out. Once again, it felt as if the Doctor was shutting her out. Once again, a reminder of his past was being thrown in her face, his life before her; one he almost seemed to keep hidden from her and she couldn't help but wonder why everything with him was kept at a distance.

Rose stuck on a smile anyway, hoping neither of them would notice which was unlikely given that neither one seemed to have eyes for anyone but the other.

"Doctor!" the woman exclaimed, coming forward to greet them, "It's been a while."

"It has indeed. Haven't seen you since you tried to sell that kitten to the King of Dogs."

"Well, he said he wanted a pet." She smiled, shrugging, "It wasn't my fault he wasn't a cat person."

Rose couldn't help but notice how friendly they were with each other. It was rare to see many people from the Doctor's past that actually popped up and greeted him with a smile on their face. She almost expected something giant, green and gooey to jump out from behind. It wouldn't surprise her anymore.

"Can't blame him myself…" The Doctor let out a breath, remembering the number of bad incidents involving him and a cat in his lifetime. He remembered a long time ago when he didn't mind them, he used to like them in fact, but then one in a nun's wimple had to go and threaten him, "So how have you been? You look better than last time."

"I _am_ better than last time." She quickly broke eye contact with the Doctor, letting the conversation die away. Her eyes lingered over to Rose, "Ah…" she exclaimed knowingly, "Let me guess…" Rose eyed her warily, "Rose." Her eyes widened, "Bet you want to know how I knew that."

Before Rose had a chance to answer, the Doctor stepped in, "Stop using your little psychic trick. You just saw a few seconds into the future where she introduced herself and decided to make a small change to it. Stop messing with the proper order of things."

She looked indignant for a moment, before she remained silent no more, "This coming from the man who lives in the past; blazing through it in the blink of an eye." She shot back, "Now I wasn't talking to you so I suggest you shut it." She raised a finger at the Doctor who eyed it warily, but remained quiet. The woman turned back to Rose, "Ah, well, you might want to know who I am." She smiled, "You can call me Jinx."

"Jinx?" A small grin formed on her lips, "As in…"

"The bad luck kind of jinx…" She nodded, "Yeah…well, my full name's Jinxsaphole Meineritine Jecabad Danil." She smiled, "You can see why I prefer the shortened version."

Rose's tight smile slacked slightly, and she let out a light laugh, feeling the atmosphere in the room become more friendly. Maybe she should give the girl a chance, "How do you know the Doctor?"

"Oh just from around." That was her vague answer and Rose suddenly found any possibility of actually liking this girl slowly slipping away as her impatience grew. She turned towards the Doctor, "You know what, I'm going to get a drink. Let you two chat…Catch up."

Watching Rose depart, he couldn't help but sense a slight change in attitude from Rose but he couldn't place his finger on what it was about her that had changed in the space of a few minutes. Maybe she just really needed a drink…

He leaned against the wall behind him; Jinx did the same. They were silent for a few moments, regarding each other knowing words would not need to be spoken. Finally Jinx spoke up, "So hand it over."

An eyebrow rose in response, "Hand what over?" he asked curiously. He had known her to be always straightforward and to the point but usual she was obvious during that straightforwardness. He had learned that nothing could really surprise him about her anymore.

"The diary."

His mouth hung open. Ok, maybe one thing could surprise him…

To be continued...

**AN: Original Characters from the Doctor's past...yes, they can be annoying, yes, they can seem like they are otu to steal the doctor away from Rose but they also offer writeres the chance to make more situations arise because of the impact the new characetr brings upon others. lol...but if you want to hate Jinx (Have no idea why I called her that) then by all means do so. If you like her, then by all means like her. lol...tell me what you think. :)**


	18. Chapter 17

**AN; If crazy had a name then let me assure you that it would indeed be mines, at least according to 8 out of the 10 people surveyed…lol, had you going there for a moment but this surely proves I am crazy from my extremely bad taste in jokes. Sorry about that. Now anyway, I'm back with a new chapter obviously otherwise why would I be addressing you so and I apologize for it not being up sooner but I lost the USB pen and you know nothing can be done without the USB pen but I have once again gotten a new one.**

Jinx almost wished she had a camera on her person, just so she would be able to capture the look of surprise on his face. She had known him in a few forms, she even knew a version of this one from his future even though it was part of her past and she had never seen him so dumbstruck.

"Oh come on," she said rolling her eyes, "It's not _that_ surprising."

His mouth still hung open, moving like a fish as he tried to form words but only ended up successfully muttering something along the lines of, "Ugh...whu...bu-"

She groaned in annoyance with his sudden speechlessness, "There's surprise and then there's just-"

"Don't answer that!" he warned, regaining his voice.

She tilted her head to the side, a small smile gracing her lips in the process, "Oh you know me too well."

"Unfortunately." He muttered, and she scowled at him.

She slapped him playfully on the arm, "Don't be like that. You know you…mildly like me. Plus me and you – history! Have you forgotten all those good times? Sure, it mainly involved breaking out of prison cells, but still a small amount of history so cough it up. Not literally of course."

"How did you know about it?"

She brought her hands in front of her face and wiggled her fingers, mumruing in a low almost childishly magical voice, "My special little trick."

"You know sometimes I hate the fact you can see into the future."

"And sometimes I hate when you explain everything at a mile a minute but I still manage to get by on our brief meetings with a small amount of courtesy. You should do the same." She held out her hand, "Hand over the diary."

Reluctantly he did so, knowing there could only be a plausible reason for her to come straight out with it. She had always been a creature of meaning. There was a meaning behind everyone of her actions and it could only seem plausible under the circumstances that this was remotely to do with helping. Had it been any other way then he would be sure that she would have just tried to pickpocket him? It was in her nature.

Her eyes glazed through it, briefly scanning the pages but not stopping to read any words. He briefly wondered that if in her mind she had already read them in another scenario of the future. He also wondered where Rose had gotten to...

When her hand had snapped the book shut, Jinx stood with a grin on her face. She turned towards him, "Oh I like her!"

"You do?"

"Yes!" she shouted, thinking about how gullible he was and how smart Rose was to get him back in such a fashion. He deserved to be knocked down a peg or two, "So how much have you read of it?"

"Almost all of it."

"So you haven't gotten to the end?" Jinx asked innocently.

"No..." The Doctor briefly narrowed his eyes, "Why?"

She shrugged, a little too innocently, "No reason." He raised an eyebrow. _What was she up to?_ Her foot began to tap subconsciously, "So are you planning to read it anytime soon?"

"No!" He exclaimed, "I'm not reading anymore of it! It's not right!"

"Oh when did your sense of conscience decided to kick in. You've said you've read most of it already. Read the rest you idiot. Forget about you moral centre for a few more pages."

"No!" He repeated, "And I do not have a moral centre!"

She threw up her hands in exasperation, "Oh please, you're worse than-"

He raised a finger, pointing at her, "Don't say it!"

"Fine I won't but you have this whole belief in what is right and what's wrong. You never even comprehend that what others suggest you do could be for your own good."

"Well, no good has come of reading that. I was better off being oblivious to Rose's obsession with me. Who knew a girl could be so in love with the brilliance that is me?"

Jinx rolled her eyes, "I see you haven't found the modesty most people possess yet?"

"And-"

The Doctor's response was cut off as another voice boomed across the room, directed at Jinx.

"Ah, there you are!"

"Oh no…" she whispered, loud enough for the Doctor to hear.

"What?" mouthed the Doctor, looking between Jinx and the approaching man. His eyes widened slightly in amusement, taking in the man's overconfident posture. The Doctor grinned, _this should be fun, he thought to himself. _The gold ring on his finger glinted under the expensive chandelier light as he advanced. _And he's rich too! Brilliant! _He turned towards Jinx once more, eyeing her reaction.

"It's that intolerable man again. Jueni." The name seemed to cause her pain just to say it. Her eyebrows crinkled together into a small frown, "I swear to the Goddess Ilakara that if he doesn't-"

Before she could continue Jueni was upon her, flashing her his exuberant smile, "Ah Jinxsaphole, there you are you delightful creature." He leaned forward bringing her hand up to his mouth to kiss the back of her hand. She cringed unbeknownst to him and the Doctor's grin widened as he resisted the urge to laugh, "And who's your…" He stopped suddenly, eyeing up the Doctor as if he was a competitor, "Friend?"

"Oh…um, this is the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" He nodded, "Hope you're not feeling ill, Jinxie. You can always come up to my bed if you need a place to lay down, I'll even join you."

"No!" she replied, forcing a smile and repressing the _very_ strong urge to gag, "That won't be necessary, he's not an actual Doctor."

"Is that so?" Jueni raised an eyebrow, "That's a name?" The Doctor nodded again, "Good for you, knew a guy by the name of Lawyer. Didn't make him too popular, but he never got sued." The Doctor grinned, laughing lightly at the bad sense of humour being so blatantly shown. Jueni slapped the Doctor heartily on the arm, the impact nearly knocking him off the Time Lord off his feet. He rubbed his now aching arm, but his mood remained bemused nonetheless, "Pleasure to meet you, Doctor."

"You too."

Jinx's face went still as her gaze slowly moved from one man to the other, an idea forming in her head. She smiled at the thought and quickly pulled her hand out of Jueni's and wrapped it around the Doctor's arm, pulling herself closer to him; "I never got to tell you earlier. This guy – oh this guy, he's someone very special to me." The Doctor stared down at her confused by her sudden attachment to him; she had never done anything like that before. He suddenly wondered where Rose was, "Jueni, this is my…one true…" She took a deep breath, forcing out the word as if it were the hardest thing in the world, "…love – the one and only."

The Doctor head snapped down with sudden speed that he could almost hear the crack of whiplash by the movement. Jinx quickly noticed his expression and nipped - where Jueni could not see - the arm she had attached herself to. He yelped, "Ah!"

"What is it honey?" she began, staring daggers at him behind hooded eyes whilst composing a facade of concerned partner.

"Ah…nothing. I was about to agree with you and I just realised that I can't tell you what exactly I feel right now into words. It's just impossible when I look at your face…"

"Oh, I feel the exact same way. Believe me." She assured him, ignoring his doubtful eyes, which in no way matched the face he had put on for her. A_t least he was going along with it. That was - at least - something_. She turned back to a now disheartened Jueni, "Isn't he adorable? I'm sorry I never got to mention him earlier to you, but…you know how it is."

He grunted, "Yeah…uh, nice to meet you." He said meeting the Doctor's gaze. He turned to Jinx, "Nice seeing you again Jinxsaphole. Well, I must be off. People to meet and greet. The usual. A pleasure as always my lady." He threw one last look of distain towards the Doctor before promptly turning away. There was no accompanying glint of gold on his finger on his departure.

As soon as she was sure he was out of view, Jinx sprung apart from the Doctor, "Never again!"

"What?" The Doctor said, disbelief evident in his features, "I'm not the one who practically jumped on me."

"I did no such thing." She defended, rubbing her arm.

The Doctor imitated her voice from earlier, mocking her, "Oh look, here's my one true-"

"Oh button it, you know I would never see you like that. You're like a…I don't know…a dog."

"A dog?" His eyes widened, "How am I a dog?"

She rolled her eyes, "I don't mean it like that. I meant like…man's best friend. Yes, I know I'm not a man and we're not exactly best friends but you would like your dog - love it even in its own way, not saying I do – but it's a relationship based on companionship. I mean you wouldn't shack up with your dog…oh, that just sounded wrong. I think I just grossed myself out…I shouldn't have went with the dog as an example. Yeah…sorry about that. Anyway, I've had to put up with that man all day. If you knew what he was like then you would understand. So self-absorbed – worse than even you! And that's saying something. You wouldn't think he's bad when you just meet him, but if you spent any time with him, you'd understand." She looked down for a moment, avoiding his gaze before her head shot up as if a jolt of electricity had trickled down her spine; her eyes held an faraway look as if she were integrated in two places at once, "Where's Rose?"

The Doctor looked around, concern growing. Where was Rose indeed?

_Meanwhile…_

Rose held the glass delicately between her fingers, her eyes gazing over the rim of it as she brought it to her lips. She frowned, taking in the pair's playful air. They seemed like they knew each other very well…

She sighed, it wasn't as if she was jealous, but it always hurt her to know that she was a replacement for someone else. And it seemed as if she wasn't even a better replacement. It was as if the Doctor had settled with her. She wasn't as pretty, or smart as his former companions, judging from the few she had met or heard about. What was so special about her?

"I always hate to see a lady frown." A voice whispered in her ear, Rose jumped in surprise and turned abruptly – almost spilling her drink in the process. She was about to answer back when she caught a look at the voice's face and suddenly found herself speechless. He misinterpreted her silence and hastily tried to apologize, "Oh I do apologize if I startled you! I didn't mean to."

She looked up into his hazel orbs and smiled shyly, "Oh…you…um, you didn't startle me." She replied, her voice sounding far away as she spoke.

"Well, that's good then. May I introduce myself then?" Rose nodded, not trusting her voice, "I am Edmund Caspian."

"I'm Rose. Rose Tyler."

"Ah, such a beautiful name. Like the flower, right?" She nodded again. He smiled, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance Rose."

"Edmund, that's a…very…"

"Uncommon name for someone to see in this place? So is Rose, but then again not many humans understand the significance of this place or the importance of the date, but you do. A fellow human, quite a shock to see."

"You're human?" she gasped, taking in his features once more, "You're kidding me?"

He shook his head, a bemused smile resting on his lips.

"Wow!" she continued, if humans looked like that in - when had the Doctor said it was? – whatever century this was then the human race was in for a shock – a beautiful shock, "Um, how did you get here?"

"Oh I teleported from the next planet over." She frowned in sympathy, remembering her experiences with teleports, "How did you get here though? You don't seem the type who would teleport much."

"Oh, I was just travelling with my…friend. He decided to stop here, we decided to stay for the festival."

A smile shimmered on his face, full of delight, "Well, then I must thank your friend."

Rose looked surprised, "Why?"

Edmund chuckled, "Because he brought you here, and I got to meet you and I now have the chance to ask you for a dance." He leaned in closer and took her hand, his voice low and smooth, "Would you care to dance?"

"Oh…I should get back to the Doctor. He would be wondering where I am." Rose looked over to where she had last seen the Doctor and her face fell. There in front of her eyes, the Doctor with Jinx holding on to him as if they were intimate lovers. A pain washed through her and she fought the urge to let it get to her. She turned back to Edmund and smiled, "You know what? Who cares about what he thinks? I would be delighted to dance with you."

Edmund smiled, and gently pulled her towards the dance floor.

-----------

"Where's Rose?" asked Jinx, her spine unnaturally straight as she stood.

The Doctor stiffened, his eyes trailing across the room when he noticed she was no where near the bar he had seen her move towards earlier, "What is it?" he asked, "What's wrong? What did you see?"

Jinx's purple eyes shimmered as she closed. The Doctor stared at her as if willing her to answer. He almost sighed in relief as she opened them.

Her voice was strangely monotonous as she spoke, "The future is changing."

To be continued…

**AN: Well, my update on stories may be erratic during January because I have exams coming up and unfortunitely I need to revise. Maths is the big one coming up first and I never paid attention in class last year and this year...so I'm pretty much screwed if I'm being honest. Anyone know math? lol...anyway, reviews will probably pull me out of my dark dreary depression concerning the formidable maths exam. Anyway...review...make me happy...offer to impersonate me and do the exam instead? lol...Ok review if you enjoyed and Happy New Year. :)**


	19. Chapter 18

**AN: Ok, you will either love this or hate this...I think. This chapter is dedicated to angel19872006, doctorwholover and BadWolfIsME for being the only ones to review to my last chapter...it wasn't that bad was it? Usually I get more...well, I have been preoccupied lately. Speaking of which, I think I did ok on my math exam...well, I'm pretty sure I'll at least get a passing grade...just. Anyway on with the story...**

As she stared into his eyes, her breath hitched in her throat. She shouldn't be doing this…they shouldn't be doing this. She was hardly the girl who fell into a bed with a man and didn't think of the consequences.

Even in her old life she had thought things through…mostly, although dropping out of school because of Jimmy Stone had been one of her not-so-practical mistakes, but she had learned from that experience and had come out better. She had been naïve before; had let her feelings run away with her…_how stupid she had been…_but did this mean this was a stupid mistake? How well did she know the man before her? What had prompted this?

She had almost let herself push him away until his lips descended on to her and suddenly she didn't really care if this was a mistake…if this was one night would change her future forever…if the Doctor would…no, it was no use thinking like that. The consequences would come as they would…but not right now.

No, for now she was safe in her own little bubble letting her inhibitions or maybe it was the alcohol she had drank earlier get the better of her.

She brought her hands up to his neck, wrapping them tightly around him as she pulled him closer deepening the kiss. And she decided, she truly didn't care about the consequences. Not anymore.

----------

"Jinx!" The Doctor grabbed Jinx's wrist pulling him towards him as concern for Rose coursed through his veins, "What did you see?"

Her eyes, now back to their purple sheen, remained unfocused. Her voice, having taking a few seconds to regain it, still had an unusual edge to it and he couldn't help but wonder why, "I…it so strange…so many possibilities yet…I'm blind to what…I-I just…I can't see the details. I always can see the details but this time –Rose- is different. I can only see thoughts, choices, blurred images and uncertain surroundings."

"Is she in danger?" That was the most important thing – her safety.

Jinx eyes focused on him and she took a moment to answer, unable to find the right words, "It depends…"

This was ridiculous, the Doctor thought either Rose was in danger or she wasn't. IT was a simple question, "Jinx, what does it depend on?"

"On her choice. Either way there is a danger. Even if it from you."

"I would never hurt her."

"You think you won't hurt but I have seen a future where she was crying because of your decisions. She wanted to get as far away as possible."

That shocked him. Actually if her confession could do any physical damage, the Doctor knew he would have been blown off his feet forced back into the wall furthest away from him staring up in shock at her.

Was Jinx being honest? The look in her eyes screamed she was truthful. She had no reason to lie to him. Yet he couldn't help but question it. A part of him needed to question it because if it was true…then…what had he done? What decisions had caused Rose to…to hate him? To wish to be a stranger on an unfamiliar planet than to be around him? It…oh Rassilion, what had he been done or, to be more precise, what had been about to do?

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you that." Her head was hung in shame, she had told him she didn't divulge the possible futures for a reason and he was getting a glimpse as to why.

"No." He assured her, "I needed to hear that." He paused for a moment, almost questioning himself to ask. Did he really want to know? "What did I do?"

She shook her head, "You know I can't tell you."

"You can."

Her eyes widened as she began to shake her head more profusely, "I can't." Her eyes remained on his as she corrected herself, "I won't."

He grabbed her wrist, his eyes begging – pleading – for her to tell him, "Please." The word seemed foreign to his lips, it was one that was barely spoken but he _needed_ to know.

Her hand grasped the one enclosing his wrist, "I'm sorry." She gently pulled it away and he knew it was a lost cause so he let her. She would not tell him. He just hoped he would be able to stop that future outcome from occurring, "Let's find Rose."

He nodded his head in agreement and let himself be led away.

----------

Rose smiled as Edmund made another joke, "You have a nice smile."

A blush crept up her cheeks, alighting them. Unsure of how to respond, having not been given many compliments lately, she settled for an awkward, "Uh…thanks."

"No really," He assured her, "It really is a beautiful one. So many woman have a smile for every occasion but they're always so false. You have an open smile; bright, beautiful and…" He paused for a moment, deliberating the correct word, "Charming."

Rose laughed, "Yeah, right."

"You don't believe me." It was more of a statement than a question, "So strange."

Rose frowned, "What's strange?"

"You!" He chuckled and Rose suddenly felt offended. Seeing his mistake, Edmund quickly tried to make amends, "I beg your pardon, that came out wrong. What I mean is that you are clearly human yet you are unlike any human I have ever met. Remarkable."

"I'm not that remarkable."

"I disagree." He smiled at her; a warm friendly smile and Rose couldn't help but return it.

Looking into his eyes, Rose deducted that Edmund was nice. He was extremely handsome with a chiselled jaw, chocolate brown locks – similar to that of the Doctor's only more tamed – and a very muscular body, at least his clothing did suggest that.

He was also a very good dancer but she couldn't help but let her mind wander back to when she was dancing with the Doctor and how her breath seemed to disappear when he had looked into her eyes.

Edmund's eyes were different from the Doctor, they didn't hold the knowledge and power of a Time Lord. There was no denying the fact that there was no way they could hold the power and knowledge of a Time Lord, but she had gotten so used to that look. Although Edmund's eyes did have something…unique, special, unusual about them…a hidden depth maybe or perhaps a hidden secret or two. They were ocean blue; seemingly endless and vast yet marked with shards of ice, much unlike the warm brown of the Doctor's.

"Have you been to Earth recently?" Edmund's voice hummed in her ear as he brought her back in from a twirl.

"No."

"So you haven't seen the Passing of Angelsidus?"

Rose suspected that if the Doctor were within listening distance a long speech explaining exactly everything possibly related to the Passing of whatever it was called would become known to her. Of course she probably wouldn't be listening for most of the rant but the information would still be at hand – the Doctor's hand – but he wasn't here to explain, "The Passing of what?"

"The Passing of Angelsidus, of course." Rose's face remained clueless, "Where have you been travelling? I thought the whole universe would know about it. It has been the only group of stars ever to travel amongst the skies of every planet, passing over it like a beautiful…well, you'd have to see for yourself but it is a sight that would take the most precious of gems and make it pale in comparison."

"It sounds…" Rose struggled to find the right word, "…wonderful."

"It is." His eyes looked wistful as if remembering the sight, "You should see it."

"It's too late now."

"Actually you'll never guess what planet it's passing over now. For the next three days at least."

"This planet?" Rose suggested, even though she knew she was right judging by the look on Edmund's face.

"Yes, would you like to see them. I know a brilliant spot to see it."

Rose nibbled at her bottom lip as she contemplated her decision, "I really shouldn't. My friend would be worried about me…"

She listed off the reasons not to go in her head. The Doctor wouldn't know where she would've gone to. She could – of course – tell him where she was going but he was probably to busy with Jinx - _What kind of name is Jinx anyway? –_Plus the prospect of the Doctor letting her go off with Edmund, who was relatively a stranger, was almost laughable. He wouldn't let her go. And there was good reason to, but Rose just wanted to get away from the Doctor. No, she _needed_ to get away from him. Just for a little while; to clear her head because she couldn't shake the words she had said once before…

"_I thought me and you were, but I obviously got it wrong…this, nah this is really seeing the future, you just leave us behind…"_

Rose, no matter how much she tried to elude herself, could not get away from that single truth. The Doctor did leave his companions behind, and she was just the latest in the long line. Why did she have to put up with that? Didn't she deserve to be better than that? Why did she have to be the one constantly following the Doctor? She had a mind of her own, she could make her own decisions seeing as she obviously didn't factor into his.

A girl from his past – one he failed to mention anything about to her – turns up and he promptly forgets about her. Look, how long it's been and he hasn't even wondered where she is. Probably still laughing and hugging Jinx, fondly remembering the good old days where she had no place in.

She deserved a chance to get out there, if only for a few hours. She wasn't stupid enough to go wandering around a strange unknown planet with someone she barely knew, but that didn't mean she had to stay by the Doctor's side constantly.

She couldn't help but wonder how nice it would be if for once she could pay no heed to the consequences of her actions? No worries about what the Doctor might think…no judgements…no thinking through things…just doing things on impulse and relying on instinct- like riding a bike…or better yet, just like saving the world.

"OK, I'll go but we stay in the building. Alright?"

Edmund smiled, taking her hand, "As you wish." And then he led her away.

To be continued...

**AN: Ok, tell me what you think. Good? Bad? Horrible? Ok? I need to know, I think I'm a bir out of practise. Anyway thanks to my readers and review if you want to. :)**


	20. Chapter 19

**AN: Dying tooth nerve incapacitated me last week so that was the reason this update wasn't was extremely painful but I won't go on now as I have to leave in like two minutes. Now, on with the next chapter...**

-----------

The elevator ride was pleasant, but silent save for a few glances on their part and odd embarrassed smile exchange. Rose could not help but wonder why she suddenly felt like a teenage girl with a first crush but when Edmund's gaze met hers, she felt her cheeks turn crimson. This problem hadn't existed earlier, but the more time she spent with him the more…love shy she felt. It was unusual to say the least.

It was times like this that her thoughts turned towards the Doctor and how he made her feel. She loved him? No, maybe as a friend, but she knew she cared for him as he did her. Maybe even more, because there were times, times where he would look at her and her heart literally stopped, if only for a millisecond and she would smile and shake off the odd notion of something more lingering in there. He didn't care for her _that way._

Not that she could blame him, there wasn't much special about her. She was just a silly human, what exactly did she have to offer? It was a silly notion anyway, she didn't love him that way either. She only thought she did, everyone thought they loved him that way for a short amount of time.

No one could say he wasn't charming with his bright brown eyes, and his winning smile. How could anyone not swoon upon meeting him? He was the Doctor after all, all charms and boyish smile and wolfish grins. He was perfect in the role of Casanova and he had absolutely no idea he even could make anyone fall in love with him.

Not that she was in love with him, persay, but he was...well, she did love him. It was something she couldn't deny. She would die for him, fight for him, try to do anything to save him when he was in trouble, she stood up for him, ease his burden for him and there was a million other things she would do for him because he would do the exact same things for her.

The elevator bell dinged pleasantly, marking their arrival. Rose looked up in surprise, as she broke out of her reverie.

"We're here." Commented Edmund, as if it wasn't already obvious. His eyes locked on to hers and he gave her a smile, the whites of his teeth showing pleasantly.

Rose blushed again, _What is wrong with me? _She wondered idly, trying desperately to ignore her burning cheeks.

Edmund chuckled, and she tried not to groan in embarrassment as she looked up to meet his gaze. His hand was held out to her, and she took it, letting him lead the way.

"So we just go up the stairs, the elevator only goes to the floor below but then most only do. Seeing as we're not meant to be up on the roof."

Rose eyes widened in surprise, "We're not?" she echoed.

"No," Edmund gave her a lopsided grin, "But we can live dangerously." He chuckled and Rose could not help but join him in laughing. It was easy; it came naturally but for some reason it made her think of the Doctor. She wondered if he had noticed her absence yet.

--------

"Where could she be?" The Doctor asked aloud for the fourteenth time, Jinx suppressed the urge to tell him to shut up. He was worried, she understood that but did he have to be so annoying while doing so. His questioning of where Rose was usually followed in-

"Have you seen anything else?" He continued, not to the surprise of Jinx, "Any idea where she went?"

"No, nothing new." She replied, for the fourteenth time. The Doctor gave her a look and she sighed at his unspoken question, "fine, I'll try again."

She closed her eyes, letting the murmurs of the crowd die away.

She watched the strands of the future linger before her, safe in the knowledge that no repercussions would plague her if she entered the wrong one. She belonged in each and every one of the futures, if she wished to do so, but without her prescience they existed anyway. It was an odd sensation, being in the knowledge that she existed everywhere and nowhere all at once.

"Can you see her yet?" The Doctor's voice echoed from somewhere far away. Her eyes tried to find the source of the noise but failed to do so, "Jinx?"

Why couldn't she find the untouched future? The future where the Doctor was still asking her what she could see?

A wisp of blonde caught her eye, accompanied by a deep red. Jinx reached out, ignoring the voice still calling her name and grabbed a hold of the future, letting herself become integrated in it.

------

The elevator dinged, marking her arrival. It was hard to think that only hours ago she was laughing and smiling with him, right here, in this very room. She had only went to the roof to get away for a while, and now…

The ache in her chest flared, threatening to rise to the surface.

Rose exited the elevator and crossed the room filled with crowded people, oblivious to the world around her. She paid no heed to the stares of shock that were firmly fixed upon her as she made her way forward.

She felt numb, as if she was trapped in a dream - no, this wasn't a dream; this was a nightmare – that she couldn't break free of. How could this have happened? How could she fix this? How could-

Rose stilled, a feeling washed over her, the numbness of her limbs were gone as something new – something fresh – took over her. Her legs buckled underneath her as grief overtook her, a stinging wound of pain where her heart should be throbbed and pulsed in agony.

She felt something wet burning her face – like acid – but when she brought her hand up to wipe it away, she found only her tears; tears she had not realise until that moment that she was shedding.

The silence of the room was broken by a sob from her mouth, another one followed soon after and the pain in her heart intensified with each one. She deserved to be in pain, this was her fault.

She looked down at her blood red dress and wished at that moment that it were any other colour, she did not wish for it to match her crimson streaked arms or the dirty blonde hair that was matted in blood – his blood.

Her mind flashed to the knife that pieced his stomach, the look in his eyes as his met hers, the whisper of her name on his lips as he breathed his last breath.

Rose closed her eyes and willed for the past to change, for her reality to become a nightmare, at least that way she knew she could wake up, but she knew there was no way to change this.

He was dead.

She closed her eyes as his face clouded her vision, but even then it would not leave her, instead growing and pushing at the barriers of her mind until she could not take it anymore for the guilt and pain it caused her. She threw back her head and screamed.

----------

Jinx's vision faltered as she plunged herself back in the present. She grasped at the Doctor's arm and stared at him with feeling that were not her own.

She blinked, seeing his mouth move but no words came.

She blinked again, and like the flick of a switch sound entered the room. She almost staggered back in the surprise of I had it not been for the firm grip on her arm.

"Hey, are you okay?" The Doctor's voice was layered with curiosity and concern. Nothing was meant to faze her, she had tried to prove that to him on the other occasions she had met him, but even that future would faze her.

"Yeah," she whispered, her voice threatening to give her away, "I'm fine."

"What did you see?"

"Rose." She answered automatically, not wanting to go into details, "She was getting out of the elevator."

"Do you know from what floor?" The Doctor's eyes had lingered over to the elevator nearby, the urge to go up and find Rose becoming a need.

"The roof." Jinx shook her head, ridding the image of Rose crumpled on the floor, covered in blood and screaming in the face of pain and loss and grief. It reminded Jinx too much of the past; a past she would prefer to forget about. The alternative hurt too much.

"Let's go then." He bounded towards the elevator, dragging her along by the hand. Realising this Jinx shook her hand free from his and walked by his side; she didn't need to be dragged everywhere.

The Doctor tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the elevator to return to the floor. He pressed at the up arrow repeatedly; Jinx resisted the urge to smile, knowing if she did then she would burst out laughing at his childish impatient ways.

"Still the same man, I see."

The Doctor's finger stilled for a moment, before returning to it's action, "What do you mean?" he asked, his gaze moving from the elevator button to check the light go from floor 18 to 17 to 16 and the finally resting to Jinx herself.

"I'd hoped you'd learnt something from our last encounter." He stared at her blankly, forcing her to elaborate, "Some patience."

He scoffed, "As if."

She rolled her eyes at him, "You are such a child."

"Uh…I know you are but what am I?" came his original reply after a moment's hesitance.

She laughed, "And my point is proven."

The elevator dinged, the door's opening to reveal it was empty. The Doctor slipped in and he instantly frowned, his hand hovering over the controls, "No roof access." He pointed out.

"She definitely came from the roof…well, I heard her thoughts. She went up to the roof…she must be there now."

He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned, "No hidden floors." He then added as an afterthought, "That's a first."

"Well, then try going to the top floor. They must have a stair access then."

"Oh…" The Doctor nodded, "Right…of course." He muttered to himself, trying not be overheard by Jinx, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're incapable of thinking simple." She replied, with a crooked grin.

"Which just proves my superior intelligence."

Jinx scoffed but remained silent.

The Doctor grinned triumphantly, and tapped his fingers against his thigh to the sound of the elevator music.

"Why do they always insist on playing bad tinny music in elevators?" Jinx asked, after a moment.

"I think it's good." The Doctor exclaimed; his head was now bobbing in time to the tune.

"Well, I think it's-" She stiffened suddenly, her voice trailing away, "Oh shit…" she continued, the Doctor turned to look at her, his own movement ceasing.

"What?" he enquired, seeing the look of surprise in her eye.

Jinx groaned, "Power cut." She replied.

Not a second later the elevator came to a sudden halt, sending it's occupants sprawling, forcing them to cling to the walls for support. The music died away in awkward burst of static and the lights flickered for a moment before they were plunged into darkness.

All was silent for a moment, save for their breathing and the total number of three beating hearts.

"And I was enjoying that." The Doctor muttered solemnly.

To be continued...

**AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Let's try to make my total number of reviews go up to 200 reviews so I can faint exageratedly for having a story reach 200 reviews. :)**


	21. Chapter 20

**AN: New chapter, I was originally going to put in why Jinx was a little closed off earlier when the Doctor asked how she was the first time (Some of you may not remember or have picked up on that. It was when Rose met her too). I was thinking of trying to build her character by showing why the girl covered in blood(i.e. possible future Rose) reminded her of the past by having a nice conversation with the Doctor whilst stuck in an elevator. I am not sure if people would want to read that though, so I postponed it and decided to ask 'Do you care to know or not? Or would you prefer just leave her past a mystery?' Also I'm just curious to know, who actually likes jinx? Anyway on with the story...**

-----

Rose looked around in surprise as the lights flickered; she suddenly thought of the Doctor, wondering where he was and if he was the cause of the sudden onset of unreliable lights. It would not surprise her in the slightest if her suspicions were true.

"What is it?" she asked Edmund, just as her vision plunged into darkness.

"Power cut." He replied, "Must mean it's starting."

That piqued her interest, what was starting exactly? An invasion? A takeover? Was danger and excitement on the horizon? Where was the Doctor, she would need to tell him and they needed to deal with this, just like always.

"Oh, the Passing of Angelsidus affects the electricity during the peak of it. It must mean it's overhead, we better hurry if we don't want to miss it."

She felt a warm hand slip into hers, it felt _too big,_ she wondered idly. The thought was forgotten as he pulled her carefully forward.

"Be careful," he warned, "Don't want you to fall."

"Oh, I've had experience with walking in the dark." She replied glad for the over of darkness to hide the grin of remembrance she was sure was plastered on her face. After all the times, she and the Doctor had traipsing at all hours through the dark and the cold on thousands of different alien planets, this was something she was used to. The Doctor however still managed to bang his foot against something on every occasion.

-----

"Ow!" The Doctor shouted, wincing.

"What?" Jinx asked, a tone of concern in her voice.

"Banged my foot against the wall." He replied, rubbing at his tender converse clad foot to no relief.

"Oh." Jinx shrugged, leaning back against the elevator wall for support as she gently slid herself down to the floor, "Is that all?"

"Is that all?" He asked incredulously, "I hurt my poor foot and all you have to say is 'Oh?' No feelings of relief that I was not badly injured, no sympathy for me, no-"

"It's your own fault." She pointed out, "Don't expect me to baby you because you hurt you little-wittle footie." She mocked.

The Doctor let out of puff of air, offence pushing through him. He sighed, sinking down to sit on the floor so he could rub at his foot better.

"I hope Rose is okay." The Doctor said absentmindedly after a few minutes of foot relief.

The image of the blonde in blood caught in Jinx's mind, thoughts of death and murder and pain and grief so raw and strong that she felt incapacitated in its presence. She willed them away, cursing them for not being her own; she should be strong enough to block them out. She had seen worse images; ones filled with death and destruction, raging tornados, burning infernos…she had seen so much worse, but it felt too personal, that was what bothered her about that image. It made her remember…and she didn't want to remember.

"Yeah, me too."

------

Edmund pushed the door open and Rose finally smiled as light washed over her; she expected it to be that of the artificial light reawakening itself after the power surge, but Rose gasped instead, looking up to realise what the actual source of the light was.

A giant cloud of swirling red and gold and pink twinkled above her, as stars of white brighter than any she had ever witnessed before danced around the cloud.

"Oh my-" She breathed out, transfixed by the swirling cloud. She wanted to be able to describe its complex beauty but found nothing to define it; no words of appreciation could fit it accurately, it was indescribable so Rose settled with a simple but breathless, "It's beautiful."

"Yes, it is." She turned her gaze to him, expecting him to be staring at the sky, but was surprised when pools of blue clashed with her own brown eyes, "Quite beautiful, indeed."

-----

"How long is it going to be until the power's back?" The Doctor asked the dark patch he thought resembled Jinx, although every dark patch looked the same if he was honest.

"Forty three minutes, four second…three seconds…two-"

"I get it." The Doctor replied, a smile on his lips, "Well, seeing as we've got time to waste then maybe we can-"

"Oh no," Jinx groaned, pushing a stray hair behind her ear, "This isn't going to be like that time we were stuck in that prison together and you decide to drive me insane by singing one million bottle of grog on the wall."

"No…" The Doctor dragged out the syllable with a sliver of amusement in his voice, "Of course not."

"I'm not making out with you." She stated.

The amusement went away from the Doctor's voice, replaced by shock and horror, "What?" he managed to gasp out.

"I'm just saying the last time I was stuck in an elevator with a guy…well, that's how it ended." She let her mind wander back, "Ah Pablo…"

"I would never kiss you." The Doctor replied, "Not that you aren't attractive," he amended, "You are…attractive; very attractive in fact to a lot of people. I mean you could have anyone, save me of course, if you wanted to but us – you and me - we are more like-"

"A sonic screwdriver and a shelf – always with the intention of being used together but barely ever in contact."

The Doctor nodded, and made a mental note to fix the shelves in Rose's room, "Not what I was going to say, but fitting. I think…actually, that's-nevermind. That's why I would never kiss you."

"Ditto." She replied, amusement lacing her voice,"Unless it depended on the end of the world then maybe…but only if there was no other choice."

"Oh, of course. Always have to have a kiss as a backup plan at the end of the world. You know how many times these lips have saved the world? Lots of times. Lots and lots and lots…and lots."

"They haven't saved the world that much have they?"

"No…" The Doctor sighed, "Not really…but they have save people I've cared about." He added as he remembered taking in the heart of the Tardis in order to save Rose. Even though it had caused him to regenerate – which wasn't bad considering his new form; who could really complain about this face? – he would do it again without a second thought in order to save her.

They lapsed into silence again; save for the Doctor's impatient fingers tapping a monotonous rhythm against his leg and Jinx's "You know what we need?"

Jinx remained silent, waiting for him to continue, when he did not she groaned and replied, "What?"

"Light."

"No kidding, what made you deduce that? The giant pool of darkness surrounding us? Or was it-"

The Doctor ignored her sarcasm, making it a point to ask what was bothering her as soon as he got them out of this darkness, but he knew her well enough to realise that she got bitterly sarcastic when she was annoyed by something and he figured that said something was something to do with her vision, not that she would admit it straight out of course. Hopefully the light would brighten her mood, he smiled at his inner joke – brighten her mood - and the screwdriver might be able to help on that front.

"Stand up," he ordered and, after a huff of breath, Jinx complied. He dug in through his pockets, pulling out a light bulb, four pieces of a wire, a battery, an apple, a metal stick and a small self-extracting transpartial co-grandator. He then proceeded to drop the array of items in her arms, "Hold this."

She patiently held the items in her hand while the Doctor went to work, after a moment she still as she felt movement across her arm, "Ok, why is there something furry on my hand?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Furry?"

"Ah…" Jinx shuddered as something skittered up her arm and around her neck, "It's moving…ah, what the hell is that?"

"Stay still," The Doctor reached out in the darkness with a hand and grazed upon skin.

"That's my arm." Jinx pointed out and with another shudder she then said in a louder voice, "It's on my stomach. Ah…Doctor, get whatever the hell you've stuck on me off before I-" He moved his hand a bit to the side, squeezed before promptly realising that wasn't her stomach "Ah!" Jinx yelped, "That's not-"

"I know!" He replied, his voice a tone higher and clearly shaded in annoyance and a tinge of embarrassment. He placed his hand lower and grabbed on to something furry; it struggled under his grasp. "Ow!" he yelped, almost dropping it, "It bit me!"

"Get it off me!" Jinx shouted, not being reassured at the knowledge that the thing – whatever it was – had teeth.

The Doctor pulled and the creature skittered free of his grasp, climbing up his arm and back into his pocket with a squeak as it went, "Oh!" The Doctor mumbled out after a moment, while sucking his thumb, "Don't worry, it's only Freddie."

"Freddie?" Jinx raised an eyebrow, despite knowing that it would prove useless for effect due to their dark surroundings, "Who the hell is Freddie?"

"He's my hamster." The Doctor's tone was matter-of-fact, almost as if it was the most obvious thing in the world; "I keep him in my coat."

Jinx blinked. Her mouth opened, then closed and then she blinked once more before asking, "You have a hamster in your coat?"

"Yeah, you don't?"

"No, I guess I left mine in my other coat along with my guinea pig and the three blind mice." She shook her head, wondering why she ever expected anything less than surprise when things involved the Doctor. She let her grip on the items tighten, as if only remembering the fact she was still carrying them, "Ok then, are you gonna give us light anytime soon or are you just gonna feel me up again?"

"I didn't know that was your-"

She suppressed a laugh, "Oh forget it, just get on with it." The blue of the sonic buzzed on as the Doctor's screwdriver flared to life, illuminating both their faces eerily. Jinx raised an eyebrow, "Now, why didn't you think of using that to find Freddie when he was crawling all over me instead of feeling the dark."

The Doctor shrugged, and offered the first excuse he could think of, "He doesn't like bright lights?"

Jinx merely laughed in reply.

---------

Rose gaze was pulled away from Edmund's face by a small glint of something on his finger. She looked down at the sparkling object to realise it was a ring on his index finger. Edmund followed her gaze and pulled it back away from her attentive eyes.

Rose frowned momentarily, wondering why he had done that, "What kind of ring is that?" she asked, hoping that her curiosity wouldn't be blatantly obvious, "It's very beautiful. Is there diamonds in that?"

Edmund hesitated, looking down at his hand. He clenched and unclenched it as if deliberating to show it or not before he finally pulled his hand back into Rose's view.

It was a gold ring, the band small around the finger leading to a larger crest, which was encrusted with diamonds in a pattern that seemed to make no sense at all but at the same time, held an air of something familiar. She squinted at it, hoping it would make its image more familiar but she still remained annoyed by its unknown familiarity.

"What does it mean?"

Edmund shrugged, "It's just a ring. It doesn't really have any meaning. It's more like a family crest, only not as exclusive as that."

"So is it like a logo for a football team or something?" She joked, Edmund's face remained blank, "They still have football on Earth, don't they?"

"Football?" He looked away, thinking back and blinked, as if suddenly remembering "Wasn't that once a hobby in the 21st century? That hasn't been played in centuries…I don't even think anyone remembers football these days."

Rose smiled; hoping that her lack of knowledge in the fact that football was no longer played would go unnoticed. Thank god, Mickey wasn't here otherwise that would come as quite a blow. The sport he loved for so long becoming forgotten about in the future. It would break his heart.

"It's a beautiful ring." Rose repeated, shifting focus back on the ring, "Are those diamonds?"

"A few of them are."

Rose looked up in surprise, "But they all look the same? Are the rest of them fake or something?"

"No, there are others. The differences aren't that noticeable though." Rose looked closely at the ring again, and she did notice the small differences. The way one shot off a small glitter of blue light at the right angle, or the small dots of green in another one, or the thin streak of red that carefully decorated the rim of another.

"Would you like a drink?" Edmund asked, with a smile on his face.

"A drink?" Rose looked around the rooftop, "From where exactly?"

Edmund smile turned to a grin and he walked over to a low wall nearby, leaning behind it he pulled out a few bottles of something, "I came up here yesterday, hoping to get a look at that." He pointed up at the sky, "I brought some refreshments. It's the prefect place up here to keep them cool." He held one of the bottles up to her, "Care for one?"

Rose nodded and took the bottle, hoping it tasted of something she recognised.

-------

"Ah!" The Doctor beamed in delight, "Let there be light!"

Jinx blinked as a bright light filled the room, letting her eyes adjust for a few moments to the new light. When she had done that, she looked up and said; her tone laced with surprise, "Wow, you actually did it."

The Doctor's smile diminished slightly, "Of course I did it, I'm the Doctor!"

"Well, knowing you it could have gone either way." You either would have got the light working or you would have blown us up." She looked up and raised an eyebrow, "Is that an apple?"

"Yeah, the juices help maintain the connection."

"Right…"

-------

Rose giggled as the alcohol (It was alcohol, right? It must be alcohol…she never giggled this much) went through her system. She was on her fourth one. This one tasted like pears, the Doctor would completely hate it, she knew that. Although why he disliked pears so much was something he would never tell her, like a lot of things…

"I think I've drunk too much of this." She managed to say, sounding relatively sober.

Edmund chuckled beside her, "Ah, you can never drink enough of these. They leave you on the verge of being drunk but you never actually are drunk."

"You're just saying that." She replied with a laugh, "You've probably haven't drank that many yet so you still think you're sober."

He shook his head, and Rose could almost see the blurred image of three of him at the movement, but it was gone before she could realise, "No, they make you feel drunk but you can still think logically." He paused, "Try thinking of 12 times 12."

Rose did so and found herself surprised to still have the number 144 pop into her head only seconds after thinking. She had never been good at maths, but everything up to the 12 times tables had been permanently etched into her brain from all the times she passed notes in her maths class. Mr Kermit was the only teacher to ever to make detentions even more torturous than the class he taught.

"Yeah," Edmund leaned closer, and whispered dramatically like a child telling a secret "You knew the answer didn't you?"

Rose nodded, laughing, "I'm really sober?" she asked, surprised.

"Well," he paused, "I wouldn't say _really _sober but you're not as drunk as you think you are."

Rose raised her bottle, "Here's to being 'Not as drunk as you think you are'."

"Cheers!" Edmund replied, clinking the bottle together.

"Cheers!"

To be continued...

**AN: So Rose is drunk, but not really. The Doctor and Jinx are stuck in an elevator...and reviews will get another chapter going in my mind. Oh and by the way THANK YOU ALL! No really, thank you all who review because I am now past the 200 review mark for the first time ever. You should see the smile on my face because, and tTrust me when I say this - it is a big smile - a very rare occurance for me. So thank you all who review and thanks to all who are going to review and tell me what you think about the Jinx situation I mentioned earlier on the first AN. Now, that's all for now. Keep reading :)**


	22. Chapter 21

**AN: I'm not really happy with this chapter, I'm just not really in the writing mood (that's why I was a bit long in updating) and I wasn't really feeling this chapter as I wrote it but even though I was in a bad mood I felt you deserved another chapter despite my feelings on it. Hopefully it isn't as bad as I think but I apologize if it is. I really am in a bad mood lately, I usually write angsty oneshots when I'm in a bad mood but I'm in such a bad mood that I can't even get myself to write angsty oneshots...yeah, that bad. Anyway, here's the new chapter. Tell me what you think...or cheer me up somehow...I need something to help me get back to my usual self and nothing else has worked so far...sorry, you don't want to hear about this. To the new chapter...**

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Jinx watched the Doctor from the corner of her eye, a cross between an amused and irritated expression on her face as she observed his bored expression; that of which reminded her of a child.

She watched how his fingers would tap against his thigh, how his eyes roamed the elevator as if something of interest would suddenly decide to appear from the dull grey walls, she listened to him click his tongue against his teeth and he would occasionally begin to hum something that sounded like a multitude of songs all jumbled up as if to form his own memory of a song; it sounded beautiful and strange in the same instant, almost as if it were the creation of a flawed genius, and in some sense that almost made her smile because that seemed like a perfect description of him at times.

Other times however, he simply reminded her of a child so when he asked for the umpteenth time 'How long yet?' before sporting a pout in reply to her answer, she let out an annoyed sigh.

She regretted it instantly.

The Doctor's eyes focused on her, narrowed in interest and she could see a serious shadow take over his chocolate brown eyes. He didn't remind her of a child anymore.

"How have you been?" He asked his attention now focused on her – solely on her. She squirmed slightly under his gaze and averted her eyes from his.

"Fine." Came her abrupt reply.

"Jinx…" he warned, the tone of his voice made her look up at him again.

"I'm fine." She insisted, hoping he wouldn't notice the slight twitch in the corner of her mouth as she said those words.

"How long has it been?" He asked, knowing she would know what he was referring to.

"Long enough for me to be fine." She gave him a smile, wishing he would drop the subject. She didn't want the past – her past – rehashed. She hated how it made her feel, hated how she had to remember, hated the pain associated with _that_ memory.

"You should talk about it." He stated.

"I don't want to talk about it." She then added after a moment, "I thought you didn't do personal."

"What?" The Doctor asked at the sudden irregularity of the question asked.

"You don't talk about the bad things that have happened to you, why should I have to talk about my personal demons when you won't even do the same about yours?"

He shrugged, "That's different. And I do talk about my past." He looked down, "I just let time pass before I do."

"Nice to see the time still passing then." She replied with an edge to her voice, she raised a hand waving it in front of her, making a dramatic movement from one side to the other, "Oh look! There it goes, off on its merry way." She grinned at his expression which she could safely say was a cross between confusion and bewilderment. She always did have that effect on him, "Who do you even talk to it about? Rose? Because I don't think that's true."

"I talk about some things with her." The Doctor's brow furrowed, "It might not be everything, but I tell her what needs to be said. I don't think she needs to pulled under by my burdens."

"Then why would I need to pull you under with mine?" she questioned, feeling triumphant that she would most likely win this argument.

He smiled a half smile, the corner of his mouth itching upwards, "Nice try," Jinx's smile fell, "…but you can't burden someone with something that they've already seen the destruction of. I saw what his death did to you. I saw your pain. I was the one who pulled you out of the darkness."

She looked down, before uttering in a lower harsher tone, "Maybe I deserved to stay in the darkness."

"Jinx," He said her name with sadness in his tone, "why would you think that?"

"Because…I couldn't save him…" She shook her head, closing up once more, "No, I'm not…I won't…I can't talk about this…please," she begged, the word sounding foreign on her lips, "Don't bring this up. I'm trying really hard to remember because it hurts…" She swallowed back the lump in her throat that had formed, "…_so much_ to remember that day."

The look in his eyes made her wanted to run, he was looking at her with pity and she didn't think she had the stomach to handle that.

"I think that's why we should talk about it."

------

Rose smiled up at Edmund who was humming lightly, in his somewhat intoxicated state. There was perks to the feeling drunk when in reality her body was only slightly inebriated. She found that standing wasn't difficult nor was thinking, but the buzz in her mind made her feel happy. She idly wondered if she would have a hangover, or would that too be non-existent.

"Will I have a hangover?" she said aloud, her thought processing into words.

Edmund stopped humming, and Rose wished she hadn't made him stop because his voice, even when humming, had a nice sound to it. It made her feel peaceful, or maybe that was the alcohol. She wasn't sure.

"No." He shook his head before he looked up to the sky, rubbing at one of his eyes, "You won't. And I won't." He looked down at his hands, which were holding him upright, "I think the view will be better if we lay down."

"Oh really?"

He took a moment to think, "Yeah."

And with that he turned and went to where his hidden stash of beverages were and pulled out a blanket, "How much stuff do you have hidden over there?" Rose asked as he laid down the blanket on the floor.

He looked up at her, a hint of a smile gracing the corner of his lips, "A lot."

He offered Rose his hand and helped her lay down before joining her. They stayed silent for a moment; letting the view above them captivate their eyes. Rose smiled and whispered, "You were right. The view is much better."

"I told you."

Rose laughed, "Yes you did."

They lapsed into silence once again and Rose stared up at the sky. The delight in seeing new skies was always magical, but she missed the Doctor's running commentary. He could make the most mundane things interesting…she sighed.

"What's wrong?" Edmund asked, sensing a change in her mood with her sigh being an obvious clue to the change.

"I think I should go and find my friend. He'll be worried about me, especially with the power out."

"Oh…" Edmund nodded, frowning slightly, "I understand." He gave her a smile, "But I think traipsing about in the dark will do neither of us good so at least wait until the power is back on."

"I thought you said the Passing of uh, what's-it-called lasts for days?"

"Passing of Angelsidus," He amended, "Oh, it can but it only affects the power for the initial entering into the atmosphere and well, the exiting of course, but once that's over and done with then the power reasserts itself. It's a strange occurrence, but nothing can be done to stop the power outages. The power should be back on within the first hour or two after it cut out and that I reckon won't be long from now." He looked at his watch, before fixing his gaze back on her, "So I insist that you stay until then, and after that I will personally escort you to your friend."

--------

Jinx focused her eyes on the apple on the ceiling, it was better to focus on things, she had found. It was poor way to distract herself but it was better than nothing. She knew if she talked about what had happened, she would be forced to remember and she hated that but she knew this was his way of trying to help her and she could not deny that he was doing this with good intentions, she just hated that he had good intentions. It would be easier to be angrier with him if he didn't.

"You know what happened, you were there for most of it. You know how it started…I ran into you while me and Cypher were on Tectractex 8." She smiled slightly, "He wanted to see the new cybertronics lab…he was always obsessed with technology…he loved going to places like that, Earth was one of his favourite places. That's how I first met you…but that trip to Tectratex 8…we could have went another time but I insisted that we go then because I wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible so I could get back to finding out my family." She sighed, "We could have went at another time…"

"You didn't know it was going to happen."

She turned to look at him, anger in her eyes, "I should've known. I can see the future, what use is that ability if I can't predict my best friend's death until it's too late?"

She turned to look back at the apple, trying to push back emotions. IT was better not to feel, better not to remember the pain, the grief…the anger she felt at herself and her damn ability…it was better not to feel when talking about it.

"He wandered off, we were going to meet back later and then I ran into you and we talked…then…"

"You stopped suddenly. I knew you were having a vision because your eyes had turned different colours again…"

"I could never control that when having a larger vision…the small jumps into the future were easy but the large ones…were harder to hide the effects of." she admitted, it was funny the odd loss of control she had with her ability. She always preferred to close her eyes because it was easier to hide that she was different.

"You stopped walking and next thing you collapsed; your knees gave out beneath you. I barely caught you in time."

"I must have been one hell of a weight under your skinny arms." She joked, as she took in the colour of the green apple. She was glad it hadn't been a red one.

"Yeah…when you came out of it…"

"I raved and ranted about what I'd seen and I tried everything to get to Cypher but every time I looked, something different had happened. The same type of death but it was always affected by my need to get to him. A different location, somewhere near to the last vision only further away and I split up with you to find him…by the time I got-" Jinx closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall behind her, letting it thud gently. She let out a breath, "And by the time I got to him…he was covered in blood…my best friend…I-" A single tear slipped out of her closed eyelids, "I loved him…and I never told him that. I should've have…we cared about each other, it wasn't romantic or anything. We were never like that, I loved him and the one thing I should have done knowing him for so long, was tell him that." She opened her eyes and looked at the Doctor, "I should've told him that, you would tell Rose wouldn't you if you had been me?"

The Doctor opened his mouth and it stayed like that for a moment, no words forming. Did he love Rose? He had spent the whole day practically admitting that he didn't, convincing himself that he didn't, but here Jinx was…her one regret being that she never told her best friend that she loved him and he was in the same situation, but he had always thought that being in love was the same as loving a person. At least someone you weren't related to. He cared about Rose, he knew that, but did he simply care or did he love her too?

"I've never told her…"

"Tell her." Jinx implored, "Don't leave it until it's too late. Until something happens and you wish you could change it. Tell her."

The Doctor couldn't form a response so he simply nodded and waited for her to speak again, letting her have a moment to compose herself, Jinx had never been good with emotions. She closed her eyes, so she wouldn't let people see the hurt in her own. He could understand that.

"I still think of ways to save him…" She continued, after a few moments. "You know, I go over it in my mind…every detail, all my actions and I think of ways I could have done it differently. Maybe if I'd…" She sighed once again, running a hand through her long black hair, "I just don't know." She opened her eyes to see the Doctor's eyes fixed on hers, carefully watching her, "I just couldn't save him, you know…" She took a breath before continuing, "I can see the future, every possibility, every choice, every single action and its reaction is known to me." Her voice took on a bitter edge, "In the end…all that knowledge proved useless…futile…irrelevant because no matter what I did, no matter how many times I tried to defy the future, I still couldn't save him."

"That's not your fault."

"Then whose fault is it?" She asked, anger seeping in her voice, "Tell me that! If I couldn't save him, then what would have?"

"Everyone dies." He spoke with a shade of sadness in voice, a sadness gained from years of experience, "You can't change that. Trust me, I know. You can try to but not everyone can get out unscathed. And you can't blame yourself if you're the one who couldn't save him. I saw how hard you tried to, no one could have done anything more than you did. So you can't put his death on your conscience."

"What if it was you? What if who died was Rose? Would you still be saying that?"

"Probably not." He admitted, trying not to think of the prospect of Rose dead. If she did then, he would be sure that life would become so much darker, the pain and grief alone would probably kill him that was if Jackie didn't. He knew he couldn't tell Jinx that so he looked up at her again, "But I'd like to think you would be the one telling me this, if that were the case."

"That's only if we ran into each other again." She pointed out.

"When don't we run into each other? We could try running in opposite directions and we'd still end up stuck together."

"True…" She nodded, smiling at the fact they had moved onto easier territories of conversation, "At least we aren't stuck in prison again." She grimaced at the memory.

"We do have a tendency to get into trouble." The Doctor pointed out.

"We?" Jinx stared at him incredulously. She took a breath, trying to calm herself but, after only reaching to three in an attempt to count to ten, she promptly gave up, "_We?_ I only get arrested when I get stuck with you. And trust me, from someone who breaks the law a lot you are like a magnet for trouble."

"I am not!" He replied, holding up his hands in a gesture of innocence.

"You so are…" She stilled, her anger dissipating and smiled, looking up, "Oh." She said in surprise.

"What?"

"5…4…3…2…" Her smile turned to a knowing grin, "1…Open sesame."

The electrical power reasserted itself and the doors to the elevator dinged open, a horrible tinny tune filled the space. Jinx couldn't help but notice that the same annoying tune was playing, as before, did they not have any other song but that one? Or maybe it was placed there to torture whoever entered elevators?

"Ah," The Doctor smiled widened, "Brilliant! The music's back! I love the music!"

Jinx rolled her eyes, "Of course you do."

To be continued...

**AN: You know the drill...review if you want to...**


	23. Chapter 22

**AN: Ok, no, I'm not back. I should be revising seeing as I have exams coming up but I did French orals today and I needed to get the french out of my head and the only way I could think of doing so was to write and so I wrote and now you get to read a new hapter but I will not be back permanently writing until mid-June. Sorry, but I need to pass my exams. Unfortunately. Urgh...I'd much rather write. This chapter is shorter than usual but once I'm back then my chapters will be nice and long again. Hurray! Anyway, enough about my randomness...on with the story!**

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Rose sat up abruptly at the return of sudden loud bang, she blinked, looked around for the source of the noise before blinking once more as the effects of the I-can't-believe-it's-not-alcohol immediately exited her system, replacing her with a more calm and logical mind.

Now, once again, completely sober she quickly realised that the power must have reasserted itself because she could hear the distant sound of music playing a tune familiar to her, this was because it was mere hours ago that she had danced to it with the Doctor.

"Doctor!" she shouted out and beside her Edmund raised an eyebrow. She turned to him as he sat up, "I need to find the Doctor!"

Edmund smiled, "Rose, don't worry, we'll go down now. I'm sure he won't mind me borrowing your company for a little while."

Rose was sure that the Doctor would not be pleased with her sudden departure, not that either of them weren't used to being separated from each other on an unfamiliar alien planet, but this time there had been no life-or-death or end-of-the-world-or-at-least-this-planet situation to prompt this so she wasn't sure how the Doctor would react.

He had to have noticed her missing, the power had went out and he would have looked for her even if he had other company, wouldn't he? She wouldn't have been surprised if he had been the ones to get the power back, so maybe he hadn't had time to find her yet. It was a possibility seeing as despite being a time lord, not even he could see in the dark…at least, she was pretty sure he couldn't. She mentally made a note to ask.

"Ok, let's go."

"Do you mind if I go pick something up from my room first?" His voice sounded like velvet, and she couldn't help but feel as if- no, it was stupid, a stupid thought. He continued, "It would be much quicker to do so on the way down and I wouldn't want to leave someone as beautiful as you to be left unaccompanied."

Rose blushed at his tone of voice, and once again like before she felt as if she were a teenager – shy and awkward. How did he have this effect on her?

"Um, n-no," She took a breath, trying to stop the stutter that her voice had suddenly adapted, "No, that's no problem."

"Good." He smiled, "After you."

She walked forward past him, not noticing the way his smile faltered with every step she took.

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"Ok, this is ridiculous!" Jinx said aloud, hands placed firmly on her hip. The Doctor stood beside her tilting his head in contemplation. She sighed, "I know you're skinnier than a paper clip but even you can't fit through that."

She turned to look back at the elevator door, now open because of the return of power. Unfortunately, the doors had only offered them the view of a slab of concrete with one small strip of light filtering in from the top.

"Maybe…I might if I-"

She held up her hand, ceasing him from talking, "Listen up, even if you by some miracle – and that'd have to be one hell of a miracle – managed to get through that, I wouldn't risk it. If those elevator doors closed, well, let's just say you're more use to the universe alive." She paused for a moment, a thought entering her head, "Although, if you got sliced in two and regenerated, would you come back as one or two Doctor's?

"Uh…" was the Doctor's response, followed by an over-exaggerated shrug.

"Fair enough." She said with a nod of her head.

"Ok, maybe we can find another way out." The Doctor pointed out and quickly proceeded to furrow his brow in thought.

She smiled as she was hit with a small vision and resisted the temptation to look up and show him something that would help aid in their escape, instead letting the vision take it's course. She almost laughed as she saw his face light up in realisation as the idea dawned on him. It was funnier seeing it for a second time.

"I know!" He said, his face lighting up in a grin as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

Unwilling to let her foreknowledge ruin his gleeful demeanour, she feigned a look of surprise, "What?"

He grinned and pointed upwards, and she followed his gaze, "What am I looking at?"

"Roof exit." He said, nodding as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right…" She smiled, "Give me a boost then!"

"What?" He exclaimed, "But-"

"There's no way I'm going to try and lift you. You're light and all, but I'm not letting you get this dress dirtied by your dirty shoes."

"I'll go barefoot then."

He looked at her, and she simply shook her head, "No, I will. You can pass me up my heels when you're finished with the boosting." She nudged him, "Oh, go on, imagine what Rose'll say once she finds out you tried to be a macho man lifting girls out of elevators. Nothing says 'Hero' like that."

"I save the world daily, I'll have you know. I'm already considered a 'hero' in many planets." She stared at him blankly, "Duddekski built a statue of me in their capital city…" She blinked, "And I can't land the Tardis anymore in a lot of places due to the fact they worship me like a God. Do you know what it's like to have a load of sweaty men pressed up against you offering you gifts and praise?"

"If only…" she whispered, letting her mind wander as the Doctor shuddered.

"It's not pleasant, let me tell you."

She patted his shoulder, "There, there." She bent down and pulled off her heels and placed them on the floor, "Now give me a boost before you give me detailed accounts of hot, sweaty men pressing up against you. I really don't want _you_ to be the star of _those_ kind of dreams when I'm asleep tonight," She fake shuddered, "It was frightening enough the first time, so let's get on with this."

The Doctor reluctantly crouched down and held out her hands for her to climb on to, she lifted a foot and let it stop mid-movement, "Now, remember, don't look up."

He frowned, "Why?"

She pointed down towards her free flowing dress, "I'm wearing a dress, I thought that the why was obvious."

"Oh, don't worry. Hop aboard." He said with a grin.

He let out an 'oomph' as she placed both feet on his hands. She shot him a look, "I'm not _that_ heavy." The Doctor scoffed, "Or maybe you're not that strong."

It was the Doctor's turn to shoot her a look.

He pushed her up and she gripped at the elevator walls for support in her accent. The faint outline of the roof door was visible and she pushed against it as hard as she could, hoping that she wasn't actually too heavy for him to hold. Falling in small confined spaces was a sure deal in receiving pain. She groaned in frustration when it didn't budge which only caused her to push it harder; on her fourth attempt it gave way and she was easily able to push if off the whole way.

"Ok, got it!" She shouted down, "Boost me up, Scotty."

"Who's Scotty?"

She rolled her eyes, "Nevermind."

As she attempted to stand, the elevator made a sudden lurch and she yelped as it fell a few centimetres, knocking her off her feet. Her hands splayed against the elevator and she found that she could feel its vibrations, indicating it was on the verge of movements.

She looked up, and decided that she didn't want to become roof kill anytime soon, "Ok, this lift's about to take off. Looks like this floor's my stop. See you there." She shouted down at him as she stood up. She barely had time to slip through the doors to the floor above, "Don't you dare damage those shoes." She managed to shout down as the doors shut behind her.

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**AN: Review if you enjoyed or if you want me to be extremely happy after having to spurt out French all day. Uh, horrible horrible memories...must delete french from mind. lol...ok, but seriously people, I'm review deprived so if you want to review then by all means do so. :D**


	24. Chapter 23

**AN: People wanted me to update this before June 10th - my date to return to the site permanetly and the day of my last exam - so I obliged to please people and hopefully get reviews and also due to me having the growing need to write something even if it's horrible because my lack of writing lately may have indeed destroyed what little I could do in terms of writing. So sorry if this is horrible, but it's longer than the last chapter like I promised so that's something. At least. Well, it's 4 in the morning and I've just finished this chapter and I've never had a beta reader so if there are spelling mistakes then I apologize but I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Oh, I bring back the diary in this chapter for a short while - just remember that when Rose wrote in the diary she was doing it to make fun of the Doctor so don't take it seriously. And I also bring back Jeuni - the annoying man from earlier - who Jinx then said that the Doctor was her 'one true love' just to get away from him. Anyway, all that's coming up and I'm rambling. Again. On with the story...**

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It was during her walk with Edmund to his room for him to collect his things – although he had not specified to her what exactly this item was – that Rose began to worry. It was a niggling notion in the back of her head, one that should have been more resounding given her lifestyle.

She had always had a good sense of what was right and what was wrong but she may have tended to ignore that notion when it had come to Jimmy Stone and dropping out of school, but that was due to childish ignorance. Even though she had done those things – which now seemed so stupid – she had always known that the actions would not benefit her in the future. Back then; she had simply been too young to care about the consequences.

Yet now she was more mature, and travelling with the Doctor had only helped heighten her senses so now she was more acutely aware of impeding danger even though she went heading straight towards it following the Doctor's lead instead of away from it like any sane person would do; it wasn't as if she could exactly call the Doctor sane.

It was because of this feeling, this awareness of danger, this intuition that Rose began to worry, for she never felt worried without good reason but something felt off…she couldn't place what exactly but there was definitely something…

Yet every time she attempted to pinpoint what was causing this grain of doubt to seem important in her mind, something else diminished it and she found herself calm once more.

Had she been living in any other lifestyle she may have ignored that sudden change in emotions, but she had not been living any other lifestyle and so she felt her cause for concern to be important. And so Rose tried – for once in all her times travelling with the Doctor – to run away from oncoming danger, despite not knowing what exactly that danger was.

"Edmund…" she began, coming to a halt. He turned having heard her cease her movements, "I think I'm going to go and find the Doctor. Now."

"Oh!" He said surprised, "Are you sure? I wouldn't feel right not accompanying you. My room's just up here." He pointed down the hall they had been walking down, "You could wait inside. Or out in the hall. I'll only be a minute."

The nagging sensation flared in the back of her mind before dimming once more and she felt the sudden pull between one action and the other.

Rose gave a smile, and laughed. She was being ridiculous, she wasn't psychic; how could she possibly know she was in danger? It was probably more dangerous for her to be on her own without any knowledge of how to get back to the room she had been in before. She didn't even know where the Doctor would be…

"You're right, I'll go down with you." Yet even Rose could not ignore the feelings of wrongness that had sprung, "But I'll go wait by the elevator for you. It's just beside your room so it's basically just me waiting for you."

He smiled and nodded and response, "Exactly the same thing."

"Yeah…" Edmund turned and continued walking and Rose felt the sudden urge to slap her palm against her forehead. '_How strange must he think I am_?' she wondered idly before walking on.

When they reached his room, Edmund turned to face her as she moved towards the elevator, which was conveniently in plain sight of his room, "I'll just be in here." He pointed out, "I'll be back in a minute. I'll leave the door ajar in case you change your mind."

"Ok, I'll be here." She replied feeling silly, as she watched him look at her for a moment before heading inside his room. "I'm being such an idiot." She muttered to herself, "There's nothing to worry about."

She had even believed in the words herself – that _nothing_ would go wrong and she had _nothing _to worry about - until she heard Edmund cry out from inside his room. It was at that moment that she hated that she always right about these things.

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The Doctor looked up at the elevator doors as they once again came to a stop. 13th floor, not his stop. He sighed. Either someone had been pressing at these buttons for no apparent reason or the elevator itself had malfunctioned. He could send a signal using his sonic screwdriver but Freddie the hamster had a firm hold on it with his teeth and was now burrowing himself into the bottom of the Doctor's coat pocket.

The Doctor reached in trying to get the household pet for the person without a house and instead found himself grabbing a hold of Rose's diary. It had been a while since he had read it, so long so that he had forgotten his self-promise to not read the diary again.

It did not take him long to find where he had left off and with a few minutes on his hands, he began to read.

_Dear diary,_

_I…I'm in love with the Doctor. I am. I know I am, but he doesn't love me. I know he doesn't…why would he? I'm just…a stupid human. I think I'm going to leave. I can't handle my unrequited love and so I am going to make this my one last trip in the Tardis. Hopefully, the Doctor will understand and let me go without me having to tell him the truth, because if my mum finds out she will just slap him for not loving me back. And I know that his pain will always be my pain…_

The Doctor's face was unmoving…Rose loved him…Rose was going to leave him…Rose was…

"Oh Rose…" he sighed dejectedly.

The elevator dinged as it arrived on another floor. He needed to get to Jinx so they could get to Rose. Not glancing at what number he had gotten off in he jumped out of the elevator and ran for the stairs. At the rate the elevator was going, they would be much quicker. It wasn't until he got a few floors up that he realised he had over 50 flights of stairs to get up.

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Jinx leaned against the back of the wall waiting impatiently for the elevator to come back up. For some reason it had went back down to the ground floor then back up to the 23rd floor before taking a detour to the 5th and the 13th before heading onto the 5th once more. It then went on to the 14th, 33rd, 32nd, and 21st floors and she had no idea when exactly – if ever – it would land on this floor. She had been watching this for the last ten minutes as the floor numbers mocked her from above the elevator doors.

She heard a cough from beside her and she raised an eyebrow at the man beside her, also waiting for the elevator. She followed his gaze to her bare feet and gave her toes a wiggle for his benefit.

"Like what you see?" she commented offhandedly. The man looked her in the face, confused by her choice of words. She suppressed a grin, and decided if she was stuck here waiting she might as well have some amusement come out of it, "I so dig a man with a foot fetish." She brought a hand up to play with a stray piece of her hair, "You wouldn't happen to know anyone who could fit the bill?"

The man coughed, turning his face away in an attempt to hide the now red features brought about by her assumption.

The elevator bell dinged, impending it arrival, "I've got a hotel room if you want to give my feet a little…" she paused for effect, "Rub."

"Ah Jinxaphole," The smile fell off her face at the sound of the voice, "I'm sure this man has no interest in your feet but I for one would have to problems in cherishing them with the attention they deserve." The man she had been playing with hurriedly scuttled into the elevator as Jeuni came out. She pushed back the bile that threatened to come up and forced a smile on her face, "I also wouldn't mind cherishing a few other areas."

She cringed inwardly, "Oh Jeuni…it's nice to see you again…"

He glanced around the corridor, and smiled – although it came more off like a triumphant smirk than a smile, "I see your _one true love_ isn't with you. Trouble in paradise?"

Jinx took a moment to weigh up her options, which were extremely few in numbers with the Doctor's notable absence and without him here she couldn't keep up the pretence that she had suggested earlier of the Doctor being her one true love. She also couldn't account for the Doctor's whereabouts seeing as he wasn't on the elevator nor could she explain why she had suggested a hotel room for a foot massage to a man she didn't know. It had been done as a joke, but Jeuni would surely smell something afoot…so Jinx did the one thing she could do in this situation – she lied through her teeth and prayed the Doctor would get to her soon.

"Oh Jeuni!" She covered her face with her hands, "We got into a horrible fight. I said so many mean things to him." She moved her hands from her face, bringing them to her side. "He'll never forgive me." She nipped the inside of her palm to make tears form in her eyes. The action proved effective and she hiccupped back a fake sob.

"Oh my dear, I am so sorry to hear that." His words were tainted by his tone, "Maybe you would like to come to my room and tell me all about it." He noticed her feet, "Where are your shoes?"

She glanced down, paused for a moment and pretended to burst into tears again, "Oh I threw them at him n anger. I was just so hot headed. I mean when I get angry, I get so passionate…" Bad choice of words, she thought inwardly, "I mean not passionate…uh, I'm just-"

"A fireball?" he suggested.

"Uh, no. I just…I got so angry. I didn't mean to do it." She sniffled, hoping he wouldn't notice that the tears were few in number for someone who was meant to clearly be upset, "I just hope he can forgive me."

"Jinx!" A voice called from the side. She turned her head at the sound of her name and smiled through fake tears.

'_Thank heavens!' _She thought, '_Perfect timing!'_

There stood the Doctor, worry etched on his face from noticing her expression and holding in his hands were her heels. He truly was in that moment her knight in black suited, converse clad armour.

She rushed forward, "Oh honey!"

"Honey?" The Doctor said before noticing Jeuni. His face scrunched in confusion…he knew him from somewhere.

"I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" he echoed.

"I didn't mean to say those things. I was just telling Jeuni here about getting angry at you." She pleaded with her eyes for him to remember, but he was staring at Jeuni with a confused familiarity and she knew it was a hopeless cause. She needed to shut him up before he said something.

"Wha-mmmm" She shut him up – reluctantly – by placing her mouth over his, pulling him in for a kiss. After a moment she felt his hand fall against the wall, her shoes clattering to the ground as he attempted to keep upright by holding on to the wall for dear life. His other hand landed on her waist, pushing against her in a subtle way as he finally remembered why she was acting this way and who that man was.

She pulled back and mouthed – unbeknownst to Jeuni – 'I'm sorry for that'.

The Doctor's mouth open and shut a few times and she was suddenly reminded of a fish making bubbles in the water. When he finally managed to speak, all he could come up with was, "Uh…yes, I know…yes." He nodded again, "Yes.

"So you forgive me for earlier? I was acting so stupid."

"Yes…I…forgive you." He lapsed into silence once more.

"Oh and you brought me the shoes I threw at you." She rubbed at his cheek, "Aww…you're so sweet."

"I'll leave you two alone then." She turned to see Jeuni once again watching them with a look of anger and disgust on his face. He turned on his heels and walked towards the stairs, disappearing from view.

Jinx turned towards the Doctor, "What…?" His voice trailed away.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I needed for you to shut up."

"What?" He repeated.

"You were about to ruin my lie."

"What?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Can you say anything other than what?"

"What?" He was all he managed to get out once more before she promptly slapped him.

"Get a hold of yourself man! I kissed you. I get it! You get it! And hopefully neither of us will get it from each other ever again!"

The Doctor nodded, "Right, sorry." He continued to nod for a few more moments before he stilled, bringing a hand up to the side of his face, "Owww! What did you do that for?"

She glared at him, "You wouldn't stop saying the word 'what?', why do you think I did it? You were in shock." She sighed, "Never thought I'd get that response from a kiss…" She smirked, feeling a small tinge of pride.

"Who could blame me from going into shock?"

"Do you really want to ask that?" She glared a death stare at him.

"No," He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Not really."

"Good, let's go find Rose." She said, putting her shoes back on.

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Rose turned at the sound of Edmund crying out, "Edmund?" she called out concerned, "You okay in there?" She inched forward towards the open door, "Edmund?"

She received no answer and the worry she had felt before was growing out from within, making her feel uneasy. She looked around for a weapon and noticed a fire extinguisher. Or at least a blue imitation of it. She grabbed a hold of it and made her way towards Edmund's room.

"Edmund?" she called out one last time, hoping he would answer and she could put down the fire extinguisher.

All she got was silence in return and so with a deep breath she made her way inside.

The room was dark, she took a few more steps in and suddenly, she heard a creak but before she could turn, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. The blue fire extinguisher fell from her hands and the room spun a sickly black as she collapsed to the ground.

The last thing she could hear was a voice, "You said you weren't going to hurt her."

And then Rose slipped into the black slumbers of unconsciousness.

To be continued...

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**AN: Review if you enjoyed...or if you want to cheer me up because I know I messed up my last exam. Or if you just enjoy giving reviews...**


	25. Chapter 24

**AN: Hello people, may I be the first one to say - I'M BACK! No more exams for me seeing as I finished my last one today and just like I promised I have a new chapter for this story as well as my 'Any Questions?' one as promised. Now, I started writing these as soon as I got home. I, as usual, have no Beta so if there are any mistakes then my apologies but I'm finally back on . Could it get any better? Well, I could have a load of money...but other than that...well, I could have a load or reviews...but other than that...could it get any better? Ok, enough of my ramblings...on with the story! :D**

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The Doctor frowned at the silence that had permitted itself an audience, a fellow traveller of sorts – an unwanted one - and, if truth were told, one of the few things the Doctor hated in his new form was silence.

It wasn't as if he couldn't survive without the comfort of noise. There had been plenty of times where he had found himself immersed in the quiet solitude, mostly at night when Rose was asleep. The silence brought about dread in the realisation that one day he would be alone again and that in itself, was what made silence even worse because he had always found the ability to tie silence and being alone together; they were a hand in a glove, the cheese to macaroon, the bread to butter only without all the fun stuff.

Silence was, in its own way, his personal version of hell because he couldn't escape his thoughts in the silence, he couldn't run from his memories in the quiet and he definitely couldn't find comfort in the eeriness of a lack of talking.

And so it was with this sudden lack of conversation and the sudden onset of tension that the Doctor wondered why it had come about. And with that came the final realisation that the silence had only began to occur after Jinx had kissed him…

A kiss isn't just a kiss – that was what he believed. He knew that a kiss never led to anything good, at least not for him.

He needed to fix things before they got out of hand.

At that exact same moment Jinx had the exact same thought and they both stopped at the exact same time, neither noticed too preoccupied in what they were going to say. Unfortunately when the Doctor stopped a second after Jinx, it led to a sudden collide of the two, which in turn led to him suddenly falling on top of her.

"Ow." The Doctor muttered as he removed himself from Jinx. His fall had been relatively pain-free save for his arm, but he had still had found the sudden urge to say 'Ow' despite it.

Jinx sat up and turned towards him, "You fell on me." She stated simply.

"Well. you stopped suddenly." He retorted.

"You fell on me?"

The Doctor nodded, "Yes…" He drawled out slowly, wondering if she had hit her head; maybe she was concussed; she did look confused.

"And you have the nerve to say 'Ow'?"

Ok, not concussed, just annoyed – the usual then, "Sorry." He said sheepishly as he stood up again.

"You know falling in these shoes is not recommended, having you land on top of me – as skinny as you are – also not pleasant…or recommended." She stuck out her hand to which the Doctor stared at. Jinx rolled her eyes, "Help me up."

"Oh." He said blinking at the hand one more time before he reached out his own to aid her.

Once she was upright, they looked at each other for a moment. The Doctor's mouth opened on the verge of saying something before he promptly shut it once more. Another beat passed and they both – tired of the awkwardness that had ebbed itself in between them – began to speak, "I think we need to talk."

They blinked, surprised that they had for once managed to say the same words at the same time. A second passed and the Doctor shouted, "Jinx!"

Jinx turned to look behind her but found nothing. She turned back to the Doctor and opened her mouth to speak, "Wh-" before the Doctor placed a hand over her mouth.

"Jinx." He repeated; she nodded for him to go on, resisting the urge to smack him over the head, "You can't talk. I jinxed you." He added with a smile. "I Jinxed Jinx."

She glared at him for a moment before hitting the hand that covered her mouth, "Ok, that's it."

"You can't speak unless-"

"I slap you senseless…" She interrupted, anger glazing her voice, "I'll get on to that in a minute. Now button it, because we both know there's a little awkwardness."

"Ah, yeah. I think…what?"

"I told you to button it." He nodded, and attempted to mimic buttoning his mouth – something he failed at miserably which prompted Jinx to start laughing. The Doctor smiled, "Ok…" She gave one last burst of laughter before continuing, "There's a little tension, and you know me, tension makes me uncomfortable so we should clear the air. I kissed you…"

"You did…"

She had forgotten she had not allowed him to speak, and the Doctor smiled a little wider because of it, "And a kiss is never just a kiss, is it?" His smile faltered.

"No…" he whispered.

Jinx continued, "It always leads to something. If it's something good then it's great but me and you, it'll never lead to something good because me and you…"

"We're too similar."

"You think we're similar?" She questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah…I do." He then added after a moment of thought, "Personality-wise I'm obviously the more lovable, fun, smartest, brilliant, better looking and-"

"Can you get anymore bigheaded? I'm nothing like you! The only thing we share is being the last of our own kind. I never knew the Time Lords once isolated grew so egotistical. Oh wait, that's just when you and your vanity getting reacquainted every time you look in a mirror."

"Hey! My vanity is not being put into question here! Have you seen my new face?" He motioned to his face and nodded his head as if the motion made him correct.

"Yeah, it haunts my dreams because I'm so in love with you." She said sarcastically, "You know what, let's just forget about this before I-" She paused, "Before I-"

The Doctor frowned in concern, "Jinx?" He asked softly.

Jinx stilled, holding a hand against the wall for support she placed her other one on her stomach as she doubled over slightly.

The Doctor went instantly to her side as he took in her appearance, "You okay?"

"Something went wrong…" She whispered, her eyes glazing over as she went into the present and future that was not her own, "The plan went wrong…"

"Whose plan?" The Doctor questioned.

"The person who has Rose…a man…I know…I don't…I can't see-"

"Jinx, who has Rose?" His eyes were panicked, but then hearing that Rose was possibly in danger always worried him.

"I don't know. I'm somewhere different now…oh, my head." She closed her eyes, leaning it against the wall, "My head hurts…I feel dizzy."

The Doctor helped support her weight when she slumped slightly, "Jinx, come on. Focus!" He took her face in her hands as she winced through the pain in her head, "Where's Rose? Who has her?"

Her eyes shot open, "The ring…"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "What?"

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Rose grimaced as she plunged back into consciousness. Her head ached and screamed in pain. A burning sensation made it even worse as the cold air blew against it.

She slowly sat up and placed her hands out, searching for the wall. When she found it she leaned against her, her forehead resting on the solid wall. She closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness passed over her.

"Rose…" She slowly opened her eyes, and squinted against the light, "Are you okay?"

She looked around for the source of the voice, careful to avoid the light's rays. The voice sounded familiar and she gasped as she saw the owner of it, "Edmund?"

His face had a deep gash down the side of it, the edges surrounding it were a deep purple shade and the colour seemed too violent for his once unmarred and perfect face. His clothes were tattered slightly and Rose could see a slice in the upper arm where blood had pooled around it, staining the white garments a deep crimson.

"Edmund? What happened?"

"You don't remember…?" He asked, his eyebrow rose in question and Rose noticed another small cut hidden in the tuft of brown.

Rose thought back to the events but found her mind strangely hazy. She had remembered being on the roof, and she had a vague collection of entering Edmund's room after he wouldn't answer but after that…all she could remember was pain and the darkness that soon followed it.

"Someone hit me…from behind." She whispered in realisation.

"How's your head? I can see some blood but I can't really tell how much from here. Your dress makes it hard to distinguish."

The phrase confused her for a moment…her dress? She looked down and the vivid red glared back at her. Oh, her dress…it would be hard to tell with the red.

She reached up to her stinging head and gently placed her hand against it, she winced in pain. Her hand came against something sticky; she didn't need to look at it to be fairly certain it was blood. It stuck to her hand, clinging to her skin, coating it red. She frowned as she looked down at it.

"I think it's stopped bleeding. Or at least it will soon."

"You should apply pressure to it." He added after a moment, "Just in case." He reached up and pulled at his sliced shirt and after a few gentle tugs; the arm of it came loose. "Here," he said, throwing the piece of garment over to her. Rose couldn't help but notice the sharp intake of breath he took as he leaned forward, "Scrunch it up and place it against your head."

She did as he asked and tried to not focus on the pain; a difficult feat seeing as her head throbbed every few seconds.

"Edmund," she began after a while, "Are you okay?"

He gave her a shaky smile, "Fine."

She couldn't help but think he was lying. His pale face seemed to give him away. She wanted to go over to him, to check him over to see if there was anything she could do to help but her head hurt too much and movement made her feel as if the room was spinning. She would wait for a while and then maybe she could help him better if the sudden vertigo would go away.

"You sure?" she asked him.

"I'm fine." He assured her, "It's nothing that can't be fixed."

He gave her a smile, which she returned. When she watched him close his eyes, she knew that he was in a much worse condition than he said he was so in a vain attempt to keep him conscious she asked him, "So tell me about yourself."

He opened his eyes, "Huh?"

"Tell me about yourself. We've got time to waste."

He laughed lightly making careful work not to move his ribs, "That we do."

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**AN: Ok, just to clear this up in case it was confusing because I wasn't sure if I phrased it right, Jinx is not a Time Lord but is the last of her own kind, I'm still thinking of a name. I might bring that back in later but having never planned out anything I decided that just incase I needed to bring it up later, I always could plant it in now. I have vague ideas for chapters but nothing ever definite. I know - surprising...lol...anyway, seeing as I'm now officially back - whose up to giving me some reviews? **


	26. Chapter 25

**AN: Let's see another chapter, you see I promised regular updates and I have come through. I'm still writing the 'Any Questions?' chapter and as soon as that's finished I'll start on 'Teardrop'. Ok, my brilliant readers and reviewers my plot idea has changed once more,, it does so frequently but I am once again accquainted with an actual idea of where I am going once more...well, two ideas which will depend on reactions to later chapters but still, better than nothing. Anyway, on with the story...**

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Jinx grimaced as she tried to see into the future. She always hated it when the person perspective she was viewing from was injured. Sure, it was an unpleasant experience for them, but at least they had the rush of endorphins to alleviate their pain; she had no such luxury. Instead she got their pain in its truest form, which was about ten times as bad as what they experienced.

And she hated every second of it.

Yet she tried to hold on to Rose's future for the Doctor, even though she was experiencing her pain only to a far greater extent, because it was what was needed to find her. Plus she owed it to the Doctor. She knew the fear of losing a loved one and she would do everything in her power to stop the Doctor from experiencing it too; he had lost far too many people in his lifetime…they both had.

"Jinx," The Doctor's voice barely filtered through, "Where is Rose? Who has her?"

She focused in on the details - dark…no windows…most likely, a basement. Someone else is there. The ring…on his finger…a familiar ring. It was that one thing – that one small insignificant little thing – which stood out so clearly in her mind.

"The ring!" she suddenly found herself shouting.

"What?"

She opened her eyes, forcing herself out of her vision for the meantime. There was no way she could muster the strength to focus on the vision and explanation at the same time, not with the sudden onset of pain. She needed to steady herself, to pace herself for the meanwhile.

"The ring." She repeated to the Doctor's confused look. She lifted up the bottom of her dress and pulled something out of the pockets she had made lined under them. It was occasionally uncomfortable to run with pockets on the underside of a dress, but then running in heels was a hell of a lot worse.

"You have pockets? In a dress?" The Doctor exclaimed in surprise as she pulled an item out.

She shrugged, "Where else am I going to keep things? You know me; I lose things easily if I'm forced to hold them. Purses included." She stood up and smiled, ignoring the after-effects of dizziness from the vision, "I'm a pockets sort-of girl."

She paused for a moment as something made itself known in her mind, to be specific, a voice she did not know from a moment she did not belong in – "I'm in my _wedding dress_; it doesn't have _pockets_. _Who has pockets_? Have you ever seen a bride with _pockets_? – She blinked as it disappeared…

'Strange…' she thought idly, 'Where had that come from?'

She shook it off and held up the ring for the Doctor to see. He glanced at it, looked up at her face before glancing back down at the ring again. In shock. He opened his mouth to say something before deciding to flicker his eyes between her and the ring a few more times.

"Is that-?" He finally managed to say.

She raised an eyebrow, what was his problem? "A ring, yes." She deadpanned.

He gave her a serious look, "I knew that."

"How observant." She added, "I saw this in the vision."

"It can't even be possible…" The Doctor muttered, "I thought they were a myth."

It was Jinx turn to stare in confusion, "A myth?" she echoed.

"Enignamia…" He trailed his index finger along the trail of diamonds. The shape in the crest of the ring was a mystery…to those who eyes could not distinguish clearly, but the multitude of gems present. Each type looked similar upon first glance but if you peered deeper, you could notice the different shapes form from each gem. What they meant though, the Doctor had no clue… "Amazing…"

Jinx glared at him, and when he looked up, she found that he too was glaring at her. She blinked in surprise, "What?"

"You're part of them?" He asked in surprise.

"Part of who?" she questioned; not having an iota of an idea what he was on about. She was half-tempted to sneak a glance into the future to when he had explained everything to find out, but decided there was no point.

"Enignamia." He ran a hand through his hair, "I can't believe you would be part of them. I mean you don't seem like the kind of person who would be part of them. Actually no, I don't even know how they would let you be part of them if the rumours are true. You being a product of two species sure as hell destroy their purity clause."

Jinx had a sudden urge to smack him…she had felt like she had been insulted, but she knew he wouldn't insult her genetics. Mainly because the Doctor rarely insulted anyone intentionally unless they weren't trying to destroy or take over a world, and as far as she knew, she had not been planning to do either and so she resisted the urge to smack him.

"Who the hell are Enignamia?" She shouted at him, "And what does me being pure or not have to do with anything?"

"They are a cult; a rare and - as far as I knew – impossible cult. And for some reason you have the symbol of said cult." He stared straight into her eyes, "How did you get this?"

She made a face, not willing to fully admit to what she had done. Again. For some reason, he always got a little tetchy on her habits. It wasn't as if she hurt anyone.

"Oh." He said, after a moment, and she sighed, knowing he had figured it out, "You stole it. Jinx, I thought you'd stopped stealing."

"I need to make a living." She defended, "And you know I don't keep all the money I get to myself."

"I know…" He whispered, "I just thought after he died, you said-"

"I know what I said." She quickly replied, hoping to steer the conversation away from the past, "Things change. People don't." She forced on a smile, "Anyway, I'm like the living day Robin Hood without the weird merry men thing. I always thought it was weird he had merry men. What's so merry about living in the woods?"

"Ah, campfires…sing songs…being out there with nature. The fresh air! It can be amazing, Jinx. You just haven't tried it."

"I trekked across the Persuavian Jungles of the Planet Papella. I've been out in nature and the only good thing was the view." She thought back to her trip and shuddered at the memory.

"Ah, but you've never had a sing-song around the campfire Jinx, have you?"

She smirked, "With your voice, I don't think I'd ever want to." The Doctor feigned a hurt look and she felt a twinge of guilt, which she tried to squash, "Ok, tell me who the hell the Enignamia are? Other than being a cult, what do they do?"

"It's all whispers and shadows-"

"Oooh, you're favourite." Jinx added, receiving a small smile from the Doctor.

"-But apparently, they are the head honchos in shaping out civilisations. Only the crème-de-la-crème or as we call it, the upper class privileged members of races get the chance to join. It's all about who you were born as, who your heritage was, and what levels of intelligence, class and breeding you have."

"And they never asked you to join?" Jinx smirked, "Shameful."

"They also _apparently_ have an interest in purity. They want to keep things clean, they want races pure."

Jinx's smirk fell, "Let me guess, they want to purge the worlds of anyone who doesn't fit their standards. Killing them off so that they don't live in fear of anything that's different." Her voice sounded resentful.

The Doctor studied her for a moment, knowing how close it would hit to home for her before answering, "No…"

Her anger deflated slightly, "Oh…right…"

"They understand that species evolve but they want to keep the majority pure, like it was in the beginning, according to them. They don't use violence and they don't want an end to cross-species life, as far as I know. Remember, nothing I know is absolute proof of what they do. Cloak and dagger stuff here…"

"Whispers and shadows." She corrected.

"Right, whispers and shadows…stuff then." The Doctor went on, "All I know is, if they do exist, and they apparently do is that they are powerful so if Rose has been taken by one of them or if she's with one of them, then she's either in serious danger or she's about to be." He nodded in conclusion, and Jinx followed suit, not sure about what else to do, "So…who'd you get the ring off?"

She frowned, "Are you sure they are all powerful people?" The Doctor nodded, "Intelligent?" Again, he nodded, "Upper-class?" Another nod, "In the background?" A nod once more, "Respectful?" The Doctor was about to nod again, but then shrugged, "Intelligent, really?"

With a final exasperated sigh, he nodded whilst saying, "Yes, now who'd you get it off?"

"Jeuni…"

"Jeuni?" The Doctor frowned, "Really?"

Jinx nodded in agreement, "I'm as gobsmacked as you."

------

Rose took a deep breath as another wave of dizziness hit her. As it passed, she looked back over at Edmund and decided that she couldn't just sit here anymore. She needed to check him over, she didn't know much about injuries, but from being with the Doctor she had had her fair few of times where she had to play Doctor.

She made to stand and somehow managed to walk – each step bringing on a bout of nausea and vertigo – over to Edmund. She sat beside him, back against the wall and ultimately glad to have something solid against her back once more.

Edmund, whose eyes had been closed before, opened his eyes briefly, "You shouldn't move too much if you have a concussion." He told her.

"If I do have one, it's nothing compared to you." She replied, "You look awful."

And he did. He was extremely pale, seemingly in a lot of pain – although he tried to hide it – and he was having difficulty breathing if the sharp bursts of breath were anything to go by.

"Thanks." He muttered, "It's always nice to be told you look awful by a pretty girl.

"What hurts?" She enquired.

"I'm fine." He assured her.

"Please, just tell me so I can help you. I feel guilty enough already."

"Guilty?" He asked surprised, "For what exactly? You did nothing wrong."

"I know…" She sighed, "I just don't like seeing people in pain."

And Rose never had liked seeing people in pain, whether emotionally or physically. She had hated seeing the look in people's eyes when they were pain. She had always felt the need to help them, to fix them, to heal them.

When she was young, her mum had called her 'her little Florence Nightingale' whenever she had played nurse and decided to look after her mum when she got ill – whether it be a simple cold or not.

Although she had learned how to make a brilliant pot of soup because of it, even if she could hardly cook anything else, if a pot noodle didn't count.

Edmund looked at her before sighing, "My ribs." He admitted, "I think I broke a few."

Rose gently prodded at his ribs, trying not to focus on the way he winced as she came across what indeed seemed to be a few broken ribs, "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"Are you having any difficulty breathing?" She asked, concerned. If he was then he really needed to get medical attention and that was something their current situation didn't provide them.

"It hurts to take a breath, but other than that, no."

She went on to examine his arm. The cut looked like it would need a few stitches, but at least it had stopped bleeding for the meantime.

She then went on to examine his face, gently taking it in his hands. Their faces were inches from each other and to anyone looking in; it might have appeared to be an intimate moment.

He winced again as her fingers found a bruise, and she gave him another apologetic look. She gently traced the gash on his face, before she let go of his face.

"Will I live?" He joked slightly, regretting the action as the laugh that followed made his ribs scream in protest.

"Hopefully." She gave him a smile.

He smiled back, "No guarantees then." He closed his eyes, "I'm so tired."

"Yeah…I know, but stay awake. It'll be better if we stay awake until someone comes and saves us."

"Who will?" Edmund replied, eyes still closed, "No one knows where we are. No one knows we're even gone."

Rose shook her head. There was one thing or to be precise person she could trust with her life, and she had done so many times; this time would be no different to what had come before and, at least what she hoped, would come in the future. She could place her life in his hands because there was no better person to trust with a life, "The Doctor knows I'm gone. I have faith in him. He'll find me; he'll find us."

"I hope so." Was all that Edmund could reply, before the door to the room opened.

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**AN: You know the drill... :)**


	27. Chapter 26

**AN: To my story alerters, you may have noticed that this chapter was apparantly up two days ago but the link said it wasn't. That's because in my hour of having not slept in nearly two days, I was posting a chapter to another story and I acidently posted it up in this story. So much for being of sound mind...lol...but I realised my mistake and got it down soon afterwards, but I felt guilty so I decided to post another chapter for this earlier. It's not as long as usual, but that's because you're going to have a regular chapter on Tuesday/wednesady again as usual. So, on with the story...**

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Jinx and the Doctor silently stood side-by-side as the elevator made its descent. It was odd that after having made their way up to the top of the building, a surprisingly long journey seeing as the elevator had broken down the first time, that they would have to go back down without really having achieved anything for going up in the first place.

In fact the only odd things were she had kissed the Doctor, had a hamster crawl all over her – if she ever saw Freddie the hamster again, she was pretty sure she'd find a better place to shove him as far as the Doctor was concerned – get stuck in an elevator, discover a secret cult she had known nothing about surprisingly and had a number of visions, none of which were helping her as much as they usually did.

It was odd that her visions were being affected, they were usually much clearer. She, of course, was not brilliant into seeing her own future and she wasn't planning to win the 'Galaxy lotto' anytime soon, but it wasn't as if she couldn't see her own future. She had experienced the horrible visions of seeing her own deaths, each one she had successfully avoided but they were traumatic nonetheless.

She looked over to the Doctor and was reminded of her earlier vision of a blood covered Rose. What if he had been the one to die in that vision? It had been unclear, but there was a possibility…

The Doctor looked over at her and grinned, "What?"

She blinked, and smiled after a moment, "Nothing. I was just thinking of something…"

He nodded and went back to his enjoyment of the tinny elevator music.

She glanced away and frowned. If it was the Doctor who was about to die then she had to stop it. There was no way she would allow another person to die on her watch and as much as the Doctor annoyed her at times, she did respect him and he was probably the closest thing to a friend she had at the moment, not that she would ever tell him that.

So, if she were to save him she would need to dig deeper into her visions to see what was going to occur.

Knowledge, after all, is power.

------

Rose looked up as the door to the room opened. She couldn't see who had entered as the darkness of the room had shrouded him in shadows.

"Hello Edmund." A voice said, and for a moment she thought that someone had come to save them. It wasn't until she turned to see the look of anger on Edmund's face that she realised that this must be the case.

She could faintly hear the sound of someone fumbling for a light switch and after a moment and a quiet click, light filled the room; the harsh brightness making Rose squint as she recoiled away her aching head that demanded the return of the darkened room again. It was much easier on the eyes.

"Oh," The voice began again, "I do like your friend. Maybe-"

"Leave her alone." Edmund shouted at the figure and Rose blinked a few more times, letting her eyes adjust to the light before she turned to look – a good and proper look – at who had entered.

He was a tall man, slick black hair pulled back into a short ponytail. His smile was more of a sneer and she got the opportunity to see the yellowing of his teeth. His eyes were as dark as his hair, but the colour of the iris was harder to tell than anything else.

Rose was really trying not to laugh as she took in his choice of outfit. If she were honest, he was dressed like a gay pirate with a fondness of black. His shirt, which was ruffled around the neck, was loose fitting and made him seem like he was drowning in it. His pants, on the other hand, looked like they were a size too small.

"Like what you see?" He asked, leering at Rose.

She made a disgusted face, "I think I preferred it when the light was off. At least then I couldn't see you."

"I think that's her way of telling you to fuck off." Edmund added as the man stared at her in surprise.

His eyes flashed anger and he turned to Edmund, "Give me the ring."

Rose looked to the glint of gold on Edmund's finger. He too was staring down at it, "Why do you want that?" she asked.

"I think I preferred it when you didn't speak." came the reply, with an accompanying look of disgust. She couldn't help but think that he must have gotten enough looks of that variety if he looked, dressed and acted like that. He turned to Edmund repeating, "Give me the ring."

"No." Edmund replied, an air of indifference surrounding him.

"Give me the ring."

He sighed bored, "No."

"Do you want her to get hurt?" He asked, nodding towards Rose. Edmund's eyes narrowed as he glared at him, "I'm sure she would love to get the sharp end of my blade." He pulled out a knife from the holster that was hidden in the cuff of his wrist, "The boss wouldn't mind her death."

Edmund glanced between the knife and Rose before he reluctantly pulled off his ring, "You hurt her, and I'll kill you myself." He whispered threateningly as he placed it through the bars.

"Always a pleasure, Edmund." He said with a smirk before he left the room.

Rose turned to Edmund in an instant, "You have got some explaining to do."

-----

Jinx let her mind empty of thoughts as she closed her eyes. She took a breath and tried to focus on one future, one situation, one moment in time. It was difficult to do these sorts of things, no one truly realised how many possibilities there were in the world, how many futures existed, the parallels between each choice creating it's own world. And to focus in on one situation alone was difficult even for her.

She pulled at a strand, went into the bloody footsteps of Rose's future and found another strand pulling her away. Until she found herself standing in two places – one in front of the Doctor and the other standing behind. Both of her turned in the moment and headed down the corridor – each one heading down a separate end of the corridor. The Doctor stood in the middle for a moment, torn between two choices before he headed off, following the Jinx that had been behind him.

She gasped as she watched his shirt become stained in blood, getting more profuse with each step he took.

"Jinx." She felt a grip on her arm, and the worried face of the Doctor's swam into view, "You okay?"

She blinked, swallowed back the urge to suddenly blurt out what she saw, and replied, "Sorry, I zoned out."

"No, you looked into the future didn't you?" He replied all knowingly, "You always close your eyes when you do that."

"I also like to think," She replied with a grin, "And I always have to close my eyes to try and block out the sound of you singing along to the elevator music while doing so." He was about to reply when she beat him to the punch, "Now let's go."

He stared at her warily for a moment, before he turned and exited the elevator. She gulped back guilt. It was his life on the line, but she knew she couldn't ever tell him what she had just seen.

She would simply have to change his choice when the time came.

To be continued...

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**AN: I realised I hadn't had a good old what-the-hell-does-it-mean vision in a while so I decided to throw one in. Well, this is the time where I say 'Review if you want to...'**


	28. Chapter 27

**AN: Today marks the day that one year ago I first published this story on this site. I know...weird. It's been a whole year and I fear that it will be coming to an end in the near future, but thankfully not this chapter...or the next one...or the one after that either...but soon, the story will end and I will be alone...with all the other stories I have to finish. Now, welcome to the new chapter. Enjoy. :D**

**Oh, btw I got an anonymous review from Claire in my last chapter. Well, Claire, you left an email address but it didn't come up so I couldn't reply to you even though your comments really made me want to, but the email didn't come up so you if you could try again to get me the email address or just send an email to me, the address link is on my profile then I will gladly reply. :D **

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Rose could not believe what she was hearing. She had always believed she was a calm and patient person, but even this was pushing her limits. She had tried to keep a calm mind listening to Edmund's words, but she had found it increasingly difficult as he continued to explain. When he was finally finished in his explanation, she found she could not simply sit there in silence any longer.

"You…" She took another breath, "You were part of them?"

"I'm sorry. You don't understand what it was like. They were pressuring me to get a pureblooded species, and then you came along. I didn't want to, you have to believe that. I tried to stop them, because I started to care about you."

She thought back to when she had met him, to the time they had spent together on the roof. He had been fun, he had made her laugh…not like the Doctor could make her laugh, but he wasn't the Doctor, but he had acted like he cared about her. Had it all been fake? A ruse? "Was it all an act?"

"At the beginning, yes, but you were funny and smart and I found myself liking you more than I should've. I couldn't let them do that to you so I tried to get you to go into my room. You didn't want to go in, so I went in to my room in the pretence of looking for something, trying to buy you some time." He sighed, "I didn't know they would be there waiting for me, but when I tried to explain to them that I wanted out; that I wanted to get you out of it…"

He lapsed into silence, guilt making him hang his head in shame, "What?" Rose shouted, "Say it!"

"I believed him when he said he wouldn't hurt you, but then you came in and-"

"I got hit over the head." Rose frowned as she tried to think back to when she entered the room. It was still difficult to remember, but something stood out in her mind, "It was your voice…" She thought back to before the haze of black had overwhelmed her. She could remember Edmund's voice saying, "You said you wouldn't hurt her." She repeated the words aloud, the owner of the voice was so obvious now that she had realised, "You said that; I heard you before I blacked out."

"Yeah…" He whispered, "That was me…I tried to stop them from taking you but," He indicated his appearance, "It didn't go well. Clearly." He looked into her eyes, "I am so sorry for dragging you into this Rose."

She wanted to forgive him; the look in his eyes was genuine. He was wholeheartedly apologetic for endangering her, but she couldn't just forget what had happened. She simply settled for saying, "I know you are."

-------

Jinx's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for another person with the fated ring on his finger. The Doctor stood beside her, his eyes too searching for a glint of light off jewels.

They were back in amongst the crowd of people from the party. The blackout had not dissipated the crowd from earlier and had seemingly in fact provided an excuse for more people to join. If she weren't on a rescue mission, this would've served as a perfect opportunity to relieve some expensive items from the rich, intoxicated and idiotic patrons that now stood in front of her.

The room had seemed so much smaller earlier in Jinx's eyes, but with more and more people crowding in, it was surprising to her that had ever seemed the case. The people chatted and danced with smiles on their faces and alcohol in their hands, oblivious to the hidden cult that was operating around them.

"You don't think anything is going to happen to them." Jinx asked the Doctor as they made their way through the throngs of people.

Jinx resisted the urge to turn around and smack a guy whose hand landed upon her ass. She did however grab the hand and twisted it just enough so it wouldn't break, ignoring the yelp of pain he let out as she continued forward. The Doctor threw her a 'did-you-have-to-do-that' look at her to which she gave a shrug in return.

He shook his head and went on to answer her question, "Nah, nothing will happen to them."

"And I thought I was the psychic?" She muttered, "Why do you think nothing will happen to them?" she enquired.

"Ah Jinx, it simply doesn't make any sense. Why leave them here when they had a whole blackout to do something to them?" He grinned at her.

"What if these people are here to act like sitting ducks, oblivious to the danger there in? Maybe they weren't ready to do something to them during the blackout and they will have a purpose later."

The Doctor stared at her for a moment before letting out a loud, "Naaaaah."

Jinx rolled her eyes at him, "You know nothing. Just admit it."

It was the Doctor's turn to roll his eyes at her, "Ah, but I'm smart. Unlike other people, I know nothing could possibly go wrong." The Doctor stated, and she resisted the urge to laugh.

"Your ego's practically sucking the air out of the room." She told him, to which he apparently ignored or had not heard in the first place.

He went on, "You know, I really wish I could stop myself from saying things like that. Now, something will probably go wrong, won't it?" He turned to her, half expecting an answer but just as she contemplated giving one, he had already answered himself, "Nah, that would never happen to me though." He said, fixing the cuff of his black suit, "Too smart."

Jinx grabbed at her head, a smile curling on her lips; she repressed it, "Oh, I'm seeing something."

The Doctor's back straightened, alert and attentive, "What?"

"It's a guy in a black suit about to get smacked in the back of the head for being an idiot."

The Doctor looked around, "Who? That guy?" He pointed towards someone at the other side of the room. Suddenly the Doctor felt the sharp sting of a slap on the back of his head, "Ow, what was that for?"

Jinx stared at him blankly, "I told you. A man in a black suit would get hit on the back of the head for being an idiot. And look-" She waved a hand at his attire, "Black suit." She then pointed at the Doctor, "Idiot."

"That was not funny." He stated as they went back to walking through the crowds in search of a ringed finger. She watched him in amusement as he brought a hand to rub at the spot she had hit him, "That really hurt." He said with a pout on his face.

"Oh stop being a baby. I lightly tapped you."

"My head is precious though. Do you know how much information it holds?"

She feigned obliviousness, "Oh, I don't know. A lot-"

"Yes, yes, it does." He interrupted, nodding his head profusely in agreement.

"-of empty space." She finished.

"Hey!" He protested and she grinned at him, "That's unfair. And-" He stopped talking – a rarity for him - and Jinx was so surprised at the action, she became speechless for a moment. He turned back towards her, a full grin on his face, the whites of his teeth staring her straight in the face.

She looked sceptically at him for a moment, "What?" she asked him hesitantly.

"You are going to love me in a minute."

"You don't mean literally, do you? It's just if we're about to make love, I would rather be a little bit more drunk." She said in an attempt to unnerve him, an act she succeeding in doing as he stared at her in confusion before turning a beet red. She laughed at his awkwardness, "I'm kidding." She said through laughter, "Why am I going to love you in a minute?"

He took a breath before his grin returned, and he turned on his heel and nodded his head towards a man standing near a door, talking on a phone. On his finger, gleaming under the chandelier's light was a series of gems decorating a gold ring; just like the one in the Doctor's pocket, "Am I brilliant or am I brilliant?"

Jinx let her mouth break into a smile, and decided for once she would let his ego have a little boost, "Ok, you're brilliant."

He turned towards her in surprise, "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"I know…" She scrunched up her face, "It's weird."

He opened his mouth and let no words come before he nodded, "Yeah, very weird."

"We have movement." She said, as her eyes followed the figure in the distance. She pulled at the Doctor's arm as the man ahead went through a door, "Hurry up before we lose him."

The rushed forward and reached the door. The Doctor made to open it, but found that it would not budge, "it's locked."

"And we happen to have the key." Jinx said.

The Doctor's head swivelled round to look at her, "We do?"

She nodded towards the panel beside the door, and the Doctor let out, "Oh." She nodded, "The ring."

"Yes, the ring is the key. Now whose brilliant?"

"Still me." He said, pulling out the ring, "I have the ring."

"Which you wouldn't have without me. I'm the one who stole it."

"Well, you gave it to me so therefore I'm the brilliant one for taking it off you." He said, moving his hand from side to side showing off his prize.

She reached forward and snatched it out of his hand, "Oh look, I have the ring. Now bow down in my infinite brilliance." She said sarcastically. She put the ring in, closed her eyes to look at which outcome would open the door.

Left, right, right, left, out, in, right.

The door opened with a small click and they hurried through, quickly losing the door behind them and instead found themselves in a corridor, much like the one from Jinx's vision.

"Look's like we have to split up." The Doctor said, "Oh, I love splitting up, much more exciting." His face beamed.

"I wouldn't use that word exactly." She gulped, her eyes darting between the options in front of her.

The Doctor would go down one of these corridors to die, if he went down the other one he would live. If she went down the corridor in his place then there was a possibility that she might die. Either way, there was the chance of death for one of them. She just couldn't let it be him.

She thought back to her vision. Why had there been two of her and only one of him?

"So I'll go down this way." The Doctor said, indicating the right, "I have a feeling." He muttered, more to himself.

Her eyes widened…the dream. There had only been one possibility for him because he had already decided, albeit subconsciously and so there had only been one of him present in her vision.

"No!" She shouted, louder than intended, "I mean. Let me see into the future to check before you go down."

She closed her eyes, and visions of a metal blade and blood danced before her eyes, "No…I'll go down this way." She said, thinking of an excuse to tell him. There was no way she could let him go down there to get killed. She wouldn't have another person's blood on her hands again. Not again. "You go around the other way."

The Doctor frowned, "Why?"

"I'll be able to slip in unnoticed. You, however, will stand out like a sore thumb. Trust me on this. It's for the best."

"Are you sure?" He studied her for a moment, "You're acting weird."

"Me? Acting strange?" She raised her voice slightly, "This coming from the epitome of strangeness. Have you seen how you act?"

"Oi! I resent that! I'm not strange, merely…eccentric."

"I always knew you'd admit you were crazy." She lightly punched him on the arm, "Good for you." She smiled at him, "Look, it's best if you go that way. I wouldn't lie to you, not about this, not about what's best for Rose so trust me."

"Ok." He put a hand on her arm, "Be safe."

She gave him a smile and a curt nod, "I'm always safe."

He scoffed, "Yeah, right."

"I'll see you later." He let his hand linger on her arm for a few seconds longer before he turned on his heel and left. She watched him turn a corner, before she whispered, more to her self than to the silence of his departure, "Hopefully."

Jinx let out a final breath before she headed down the corridor, hoping that it wouldn't lead to her own death.

Dying was definitely not on her to-do list for today.

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**AN: Now for my favourite part - reviews! Who's up for marking this story's one year anniversary by dropping a review for old times sake. :D**


	29. Chapter 28

**AN: No rambling author notes today. Enjoy the new chapter. :D**

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The Doctor walked down the corridor and around the corner before he abruptly stopped. He leaned against the wall and listened as Jinx's footsteps started to move away before he abruptly followed.

If there was one thing he knew about Jinx, it was when she was acting strange and there was no doubt about it, she had definitely been acting strange. He knew her to be a good actress, when she wanted to be so it surprised him to see her flummoxed.

He knew her well enough to know that something had rattled her; something so bad that she had insisted that he went in the direction that he had not been planning to go. So it made him curious as to why exactly she would do this?

And the problem was, he couldn't think of an answer.

Not definite answers, but hunches and he was quite the fellow to have hunches. A regular Sherlock Holmes, he found himself to be at times. When he told Rose that once, she had laughed and mentioned something about him getting big headed. He found he could not agree, his head was of a proportional size, wasn't it?

He blinked.

Best to leave that thought to another time, he decided and went back to his original thought as to what Jinx was up to. She was not the kind of person to be easily rattled and so he figured that she was up to something – nothing sinister, he knew her too well for that, but she was definitely up to something. He had an inkling that she was trying to protect him in some way and so he had found himself without reservation, following her.

He just hoped that when the time came, he had not made the wrong choice for Rose in doing so.

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Rose had found herself distancing herself from Edmund in order to examine their cage. It was odd to think she was a prisoner, and even odder to realise that this was all the doing of a broken off branch of a secret cult. She didn't even think there were secret cults…this was the sort of thing the Doctor would love.

She sighed, where was the Doctor? She hoped he had realised she was missing. He would realise, wouldn't he? She did wander off a lot, but he always came looking for her. She just hoped he wouldn't get hurt looking for her this time. He was the type to get himself into trouble.

"They checked to make sure it was secure before throwing us in here." Edmund said, as Rose shook the cage lightly.

She frowned at this. They couldn't just be stuck in here forever and waiting for the Doctor to rescue her was more of a backup plan than anything else. How would he even know she would be here? How would he find her? She did have faith in him, but faith only could get her so far. There had to be something to help get them out of here.

Rose looked around their small cage but it was sparse enough already. She eyes a piece of wood in the corner and moved forward to get it.

She was glad the nausea had passed from earlier. All that remained was a headache but it was more bearable than it had been earlier.

She picked up the piece of wood and went back to the door. If she could get it through the space then maybe she could push open the door. It worked in the movies, and it wasn't as if she had much else to do. It was either this or going back to sitting and waiting.

She leaned against the stick, trying to put her whole weight against it. The metal creaked from the force but did not shift. She tried harder and watched as the door opened a fraction. A smile lit her face, until the wood gave a sharp crack and she found herself shifting forward to grab the cage as two pieces of wood cracked against the floor, making a loud noise in doing so. She had just narrowly missed falling to the floor by grabbing to the cage to hold herself steady.

The door to the room opened at the sound of the ruckus and Rose quickly moved to sit back beside Edmund. Her movements went unnoticed by the man who entered – the same man from earlier.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" He said, indicating the broken wood.

"And what is it we're doing, Sleev?" Edmund replied.

"Hey, don't you call me that! I don't like it when people call me that!"

Rose wondered what the name meant. It didn't sound like a name but Sleev – or whatever his name was – got extremely irritated at the sound of it. She wouldn't be surprised if his head exploded with how red it was getting.

"Oh Sleev, no worries man. I'm sure people won't call you that. Again."

He went up against the cage, his face almost meeting the metal as he moved closer, "Don't call me that Edmund! Or I'll-"

"You'll what?" Edmund grinned at him smugly, "Why don't you come into the cage and we'll see what happens…Sleev?"

Sleev scoffed, "With the beating we gave you earlier, you can barely move. I don't think you could do anything. Me, on the other hand," He reached into the cuff of his arm and pulled out the knife again, "I've got this. Unless you want cut, I'd suggest you stop calling me that."

"Sleev-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He screamed and Rose jumped involuntarily at the volume of it.

The door opened once again, and a man's head popped in, "Orders from the boss, he wants to see Edmund."

Rose could hear Edmund gulp at that. She looked over to him and saw that he was worried but the look in his eyes quickly passed and by the time Sleev looked towards him, he already looked one again apathetic.

"You can tell him that I don't want to go."

Sleev eyes narrowed, "You don't have a choice in the matter." He waved the knife slightly, letting it glint in the small amount of light, "I don't mind hurting your little friend."

Edmund sighed, "That's getting very old."

"But still effective. Look at your face, you actually care about her well-being."

Edmund made to stand with great difficulty. She could see him wince in pain at every movement. How bad had they beaten him up?

Sleev made it to the door, kicking a piece of fallen wood out of the way. He unlocked it, keeping a careful eye on Edmund as he made his way forward, shuffling slightly.

Edmund turned towards Rose as the cage door opened, "I'll be back, I promise."

Rose simply nodded and watched as he moved out of room, Sleev following closely behind after he finished unlocking the door again.

----------

Jinx frowned as she walked. It was times like this that she hated her own gift, she knew that she would be in danger walking in and she despised the fact she couldn't see that danger. Not properly, not fully.

She was venturing into the unknown and because of that she wouldn't be able to fully grasp at her own future. She had seen her own death before and had successfully avoided it but when the assailant was unknown, the place, the time were all ambiguous then so too was her ability to be able to see her own future.

People can decide on a whim to kill a person – sometimes it was harder than that to decide – but unless she was on the verge of the situation, knew more about it then she would not be able to see when it would occur. It was an annoying how she could see into anyone else's future's with just the thought of them but seeing her own was slightly more difficult than that. No easy viewings for her, but then watching yourself die was never a pleasant experience.

She just hoped she would see something before it was too late.

She was broken from her thoughts as the sound of a sharp crack surprised her, and her balance suddenly went off-hilter as the heel of her shoe fell in on itself. She reached out her hand, desperately grabbing against the wall to stop herself from falling but failed miserably and instead felt her body lurch forward as knees scraped against carpet. She hissed out a curse as her hands burned at the sharp crease of friction that skin against coarse carpet provided.

The sound of oncoming voices made her go rigid and she desperately moved to a nearby indention of the wall. She slid up against the wall, trying not to focus on how one foot was now evidently shorter than the other, leaving her at an awkward angle.

"…can't make any sense."

"We have our orders. We bring the girl to him for the sacrifice. We don't have to like our orders but you'll know what he'll do to us if we don't follow them."

"I know, I know, but I don't like bringing people to their death. She's only a human. What was so important about her to warrant this?"

"I don't know…let's just do it and try to forget about it."

The man let out a sigh in return, "Yeah…what are they going to do with…"

The voices drowned out as they turned a corner and disappeared from view. Jinx stood against the wall for a little while longer, making sure that no one was coming back.

Once assured she was indeed alone, she took a couple of staggered steps out from her enclosure and reached down and pulled off her broken shoe, the end of the heel lay limply off the corner staring back at her like a twisted smile.

She let out a curse in annoyance and pulled off the heel, stuck the shoe back on her foot before pulling off the undamaged one. She let out a breath before she whacked it against the wall repeatedly until she heard the reassuring crack. The heel clattered on the ground.

She frowned as she noticed that there was now a large indentation on the wall. She glanced down both corridors, stuck her now matching shoe on her foot quickly and noticing that she was alone; she quickly rushed down the corridor the pair of men had disappeared down before anyone noticed her small act of vandalism.

------

The Doctor heard the sound of oncoming voices and quickly darted into a nearby passage. He closed his eyes as the footsteps came closer and closer before they stopped, quite nearby.

He opened his eyes and found himself staring at two large men, dressed mostly in black.

"Hello there," He stuck on a smile, "You haven't seen the way to the toilet. I'm dying for the loo." He let his grin widen, "You know how the alcohol can just shoot through you."

"Who are you?" One of the men asked.

"Who do you think I am?"

The men grimaced. Ok, that approach was not working apparently, "I don't think you're meant to be here." The other man replied.

"I think you're right." The Doctor began, "But I was told to go meet a prisoner. Blonde girl, about yay high." He stuck out his hand and tried to mimc Rose's height, insteda it ended up with him waving it up and down as he tried to remember what her height was. "I was sent in from outside. I know your lot from Enignamia aren't too fond of outside company but I am the best so your boss called me in." He stuck out his hand, "I'm the Doctor."

The two men frowned, looking at each other, "We didn't hear about that."

"Yeah…you might not have." The Doctor nodded, he needed to think, "You see, I have to check her over to see if she's really-" The Doctor racked his head to think of something. Healthy – no that wouldn't work, Alive – god he hoped so, "Pure." Bingo bongo! He deserved a medal for his ingenuity, "Here's my badge."

The Doctor dug into his pocket and pulled out the psychic paper, showing it to them, "Oh…" they said looking down at it.

"Yeah," The doctor nodded, "You know with…the whole cross species trend going on, it makes things difficult. I remember the day when planets stuck to their own kind."

The men stared at him for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, yeah…"

"So I met one of you lot at the door and they let me in but he told me to go down this way and turn…at some point but for the life of me, I've forgotten which direction. One of you helpful chaps couldn't show me." He flashed them a smile.

They looked at each other again, "Uh, well we were going to get something before heading back to the prisoner."

"Well, how about you tell me where the prisoner is and I'll go and find my own way there."

"Uh…" One of them began, "Well, you head down there and you'll see a guy guarding the door. That's the room you want. Markus was guarding the door last time we checked but sometimes that other guy is there."

"What other guy?" The Doctor enquired.

"Well, he never talks to us and he's a but pernickety about his name. He rarely tells any of us lot. He's sort of…He's…" He trailed away and thought of something to describe the man.

"He's a right nutter." The other one offered.

"Yeah, a right nutter." The first one nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'll just show him my credentials and then I can go in, check the prisoner over and be out again. Right as rain." He nodded down the corridor, "Down this way, right?" They nodded to him, "See you fellows again." The Doctor gave them a short wave and went on walking.

The Doctor let out a sigh of relief. That was close.

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**AN: The Doctor...always able to talk his way out of any situation. Review if you enjoyed...**


	30. Chapter 29

**AN: Well, seeing as I apparently have writer's block again as far as the plot to 'Teardrop' and 'Any Questions' is concerned, I was glad to find out that my writer's block hasn't halted my progress of this story. Although I had most of it already written...well, the end of this chapter at least which I fleshed out a bit. Anyway as always I have brought you a brand new chapter for you to enjoy. **

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Rose couldn't help but look up as she heard the door open, it was an instinctive action but as soon as she had glanced upon the entering figure, she froze.

Then blinked.

And then frowned in confusion. She recognised her, she was the woman who had been with the Doctor as she'd left him – how long ago had that been? It felt like years. Who knew mere hours could drag on for so long? - Rose strained to remember her name…Jinx, wasn't it? She wasn't sure…her head still hurt too much.

"Rose Tyler." The woman said, a smile on her face. There was a look in her eyes, and Rose recognised it to be…relief? With a touch of amusement…in a strange way it almost reminded her of the Doctor.

Rose made to open her mouth, to say something but to be honest she was a little shocked so she promptly closed it once more.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask. Where was the Doctor? Was she working with the cult? How had she gotten in here? Was she planning to rescue her?

She really hoped the answer to the last one was yes. She was sick of being stuck in cage.

"You know," Jinx began, but she didn't get the chance to continue as the door behind her opened and she turned at the sound of it, instantly tensing.

A man stepped in, his foot hovering slightly in surprise to find the room occupied by an unexpected figure.

"Who are you?" The man asked, confusion a wrinkle form between his eyebrows, "How'd you get in here?"

There was silence in the room for a moment, a tense and awkward moment in which Rose thought that all hell was about to break loose.

And then Jinx smirked.

"Who am I?" she shouted at him, flailing her arms around in faux anger. She raised her voice as she continued, watching as the man twitched at being stuck in an uncomfortable situation, "WHO AM I? The nerve! You insubordinate little-" She let her voice trail off in a loud irritated sigh, "I should order your death for not knowing who I am. Leave us." She ordered.

The man's eyes flickered between Jinx's and Rose's, "But-"

"Leave!" She roared, pointing to the door.

"Yes, ma'am." The man gave a shaky nod as he rush to the door in an unsteady haste, almost tripping over his own feet in the process.

The door slammed shut with a loud bang. She turned around to face Rose and they stared at each other in silence for a moment before Jinx burst out laughing. Rose stared on, confused by her reaction. It wasn't everyday people did that before bursting out laughing.

Jinx moved towards the door of the cage, "That was close." She said, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye, "I didn't think he'd believe that for a minute."

She leaned down and pulled out a knife from underneath her leg. She then squinted as made eye contact with the lock and after a few swift flicks of the knife she had heard a small click, indicating the door was now unlocked. She returned to a stand and with a pull, the door swung open easily,

"Open sesame," Jinx exclaimed as Rose still stood warily at a distance, her eyes keeping a steady gaze on the knife in her hand. Jinx followed her gaze for a moment before a look of surprise crossed her face, "Oh," She placed the knife back under her dress, "Sorry about that."

"Where's the Doctor?"

"Off looking for you. We had to split up to try and find you. Now let's go before they come back and realise that I'm not actually part of their little cult." She brought up a hand, motioning forward, "Come on, we haven't got all day. I don't plan to stay around get sta-" She faltered a moment, closed her eyes for a moment and sighed again as she opened them – still nothing - "Never mind."

Rose took no time in getting up; she didn't really have much choice as far as choices went. She could either stay here and remain a prisoner, most likely get killed, sacrificed, tortured or whatever the hell they had been planning to do with her or she could get up, at least try and escape with Jinx – she didn't fully trust her but found that her judgement may be a tiny bit bias as far as the Doctor's acquaintance went. She had been wrong about Sarah Jane, there was a chance she was wrong about Jinx too, she was willing to admit that, just not out loud.

"So do you know where he is?" Rose asked as she made to move forward.

"The Doctor?" Jinx enquired, Rose nodded, "Well, I think I sent him down a dead end-"

"You think?" Rose raised an eyebrow.

Jinx shrugged, "Well, he can't get into too much trouble if I sent him down the wrong corridor. It shouldn't take too long to find him."

"Hold on a minute, why'd you send him down the wrong way if you knew that?"

She sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, "You do ask a lot of questions, but let's just leave it at the fact I did it to save his life." She paused, then added, "And please don't ask me the who, what where, when, why's…or how, we don't have time. We need to get-" She closed her eyes for a moment then mumbled a curse. When she opened them again, "Get back in the cage."

Rose's eyes widened, _what did she say? _"What?"

"Get back in the cage, we've got company." Jinx replied, glancing at the door, "It's going to look bad if you're out here and-"

The door opened, "Too late." Jinx mumbled, turning towards the door, she stepped in front of Rose as if shielding her.

Rose was surprised to see that Sleev – was that even his real name – had entered, but in all honesty she could tell he was even more surprised to see that she was out of her cage as well as the fact that Jinx was by her side…well, more in front of her.

"You…" His eyes narrowed, "What the hell are you doing in here?"

Jinx shrugged, looking the man up and down. No weapons in waistbands - if he hidden one behind then she'd notice him getting it out - or pockets. No ankle hoister. He also wasn't wearing a jacket for him to hide one in. She didn't see a knife so that was good. Maybe she wasn't going to die…she hoped.

"I'm more curious as to why you are in here. Do you have authorisation to be in here?" If she fooled the other guy, then maybe he would be fooled too. It was worth a shot. "Well, do you?"

He smirked at her before his chest started to heave and an odd noise – a hissing cough – started to come out of his mouth. It took her a moment to recognise the sound as laughing. It sounded wrong, like a chain smoker with a high pitched voice. His laugh made no sense, it made her feel…something she had no desire to feel again.

She grimaced.

Once he had stopped the atrocious sound, he turned towards her again, "Let me repeat, why are you here?"

"Transferring the prisoner." She said with a smirk, "You?"

He played with the cuff of his black shirt, and her eyes followed the movements until he drew back her attention with a quick cough.

"I don't believe you." He stated - his point simple and concise, "And looking like you do, I have no reason to believe you." He sniffed, "Half-breed." His eyes narrowed, "What are you? I can't recognise the scent."

"You're wrong. I'm pure blooded." She raised her hand, "Why else would I have this?" The ring glinted in the light.

He smiled again, and she resisted the urge to grimace, "So that's where it went…the boss sure was annoyed to find it missing."

"Are you implying that my ring is not in fact my ring?" She was surprised when he reached forward, grabbing a hold of her wrist and pulling off the ring in a matter of seconds. She pulled her arm out of his grip, "Don't you touch me!" She spat out at him.

"I wouldn't want to touch a stinking half breed like you for long." He looked at her in disgust, "How can you stand to look at yourself?"

Her eyes flared fury – that mongrel!

She raised an eyebrow as she took in his appearance. Thin face, gaunt and hollowed cheekbones; he looked like a rat dressed like – she wanted to laugh out loud at the thought that popped into her head.

"And what are you?" She said with a flick of her hand waving over his outfit, "Captain-"

Her voice suddenly let out a guttural cry as he plunged a knife into her abdomen. Rose gasped from behind her.

Eyes widening, she realised where the knife had come from. His wrist, he had a holster in the inside of his wrist. How had she not noticed it!

She staggered back towards the door, she could feel the red liquid seep out like a warm flare, trickling down and staining her skin…her clothes…her life. Vision faltering, she grabbed on to the cage door, fighting for balance.

The man advanced on her – she didn't even know his name…the name of her killer - His eyes were black and apathetic as he stared into her shocked purple ones. He stepped forward towards her and she tried to step back but found there was nowhere but the inside of a cage to run to.

He reached forward, pulling the knife out of her, initiating another anguished outburst from her as the pressure lifted and the flow of blood began to trail at a faster rate.

He shut the cage door, locking it and exited the room, wiping the blood from his knife with the black edge of his sleeve.

Her legs faltered, unable to hold upright any longer, she fell harshly against the ground, her vision darkening as she did so.

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**AN: Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! Unless it's in review form, but try not to kill me anyway. *ducks at oncoming knives* Once again, please don't kill me. lol...**


	31. Chapter 30

**AN: Ok, new chapter and I've still got writer's block on my other two stories. It's extremely annoying. Don't you just hate writers block? Anyway, seeing as it hasn't affected this story then it doesn't matter. On with the story...**

_Previously..._

_Her voice suddenly let out a guttural cry as he plunged a knife into her abdomen...Her legs faltered, unable to hold upright any longer, she fell harshly against the ground, her vision darkening as she did so._

----------

The Doctor stopped in his tracks and blinked. He raised a hand to his side as an odd sensation passed over it, it felt like a ghost of a feeling, but it was gone in an instant, barely leaving an imprint in his mind that he had even felt it in the first place.

He removed his hand and sighed, _maybe he was going a bit crazy, _He thought to himself, _Rose would probably agree. _He laughed at that, knowing Rose she'd smile – teeth between tongue – before he'd make an offhanded comment about her mother and the loony bin.

He sighed, realising he did miss her company, before he started walking forward again; the shadow of a pain in his side was long forgotten.

He wondered where Jinx had gone. The guards had delayed him – they had been a bit dim as far as guards went, if they had a light bulb over them it wouldn't glow too bright – but that small delay shouldn't have put him too far behind her.

His mind ventured back to the guards. He wondered if he should try to be original next time – go solo without the psychic paper, it'd be more of a challenge. Sometimes getting by without a problem was unchallenging, but there was no time to try and be inventive, he needed to find Rose.

Quickening his pace, he hurried forward. There really was no time to waste.

-----

The sight of Jinx on the ground bleeding stunned Rose for a moment; her eyes were closed, her breathing ragged, her body still, but as soon as she let out a groan of pain as she tried to move, purple eyes widening once more as pain made her alert.

Rose rushed forward to help. "Don't try to move!" Rose ordered as she fell to her knees.

"Need to..." Jinx squeezed out through her teeth as the pain flared, "Help me up against the wall."

Rose stared warily at her, but Jinx was determined and it would be much easier on Jinx if she helped, "I can't believe he stabbed you." She whispered as she grabbed under her arm and eased her over to the wall.

Jinx let out a deep breath, holding back the aching scream she wanted to let out, "You're surprised?" she scoffed, breathing heavily, sarcasm lacing her voice, "What about me? Usually I get to finish insulting them before they try that."

Rose smiled a little but the blood transfixed her eyes, drowning out what little else seemed important. What was she meant to do? She had never seen anyone get stabbed before. She had never been told what do when someone was. At this moment she realised, she was pretty much useless.

Jinx looked over the wound, carefully pulling back the folds of skin as she stared inside. The blood was still pooling out, but she could just make out that it hadn't hit any of her major organs. She breathed a sigh of relief, and then regretted doing so as it made the pain flare once more.

"Here," Jinx asked, reaching out for Rose's hand and placing it over the wound, "Press down on that as hard as you can."

"Right." Rose nodded, why hadn't she thought of that? "What are you doing?"

Jinx, who had been reaching down, looked up for a moment, "You'll see." She smiled. Her vision faltered slightly, the edges blacking in sickening dots. And a moment later it was clear once more. The blood loss was getting to her, she knew she needed to hurry up and went back to her task.

She pulled up her skirt and dug through one of her pockets and pulled out what she needed.

"You have pockets?" Rose asked, surprised.

Jinx leaned back against the wall, glad for its support, with her bounty in her grasp, "You and the Doctor sure like to ask the same questions."

She opened the small bag and pulled out a number of items, and Rose realised it made up a small first aid kit. Perhaps a tiny bit more advanced seeing as it had everything she needed to stitch up a wound, and needles, with small liquid bottles accompanying. Rose wondered if Jinx ever worried they would break if she fell.

"No." Jinx replied; Rose looked up.

"What?"

"The answer to your question was no, I don't worry about them breaking. The glass bottles are unbreakable."

Rose's mouth hung open slightly, before she remembered that it probably made her look like an idiot. She promptly closed it again on that thought, "Can you read minds?"

Jinx laughed, letting out an odd sort of sound as she did so, "No…I was observing a few seconds into the future – just in case of complications for what I'm about to do. I simply saw you asking me the question, but you changed your mind and decided against asking it, so I decided to give you the answer anyway." She winced slightly, "Don't know why."

"What are you about to do that might cause complications?" Rose asked, and Jinx nodded indicating the items she had pulled out – the answer blatantly obvious.

"Move your hands away." She asked, moving to open one of the bottles.

Bracing herself, she poured the liquid down on top of the wound. Gasping, she let out a strong of curses in a foreign language, not realising that the Tardis translated every word of it to English for Rose's ears.

Rose's face flushed a deep red. She had lived in an estate and was well used to hearing curse words being spoken, usually slurred by drunks on the way home from a heavy Friday night trip to the pub but after hearing what just came out of Jinx's mouth, that type of swearing paled in comparison. Who knew she could use so many swear words in a sentence? Half of them she had never even heard before and hopefully she would never have to hear them again. They almost made her ears burn.

"That was…" She struggled for a moment to find the right word and simply landed on, "Colourful. Very _very_ colourful."

Jinx's eyes widened in confusion for a moment, then she nodded in realisation, "Forgot about the Tardis' little trick." She looked back at her wound, preparing herself to continue the self-stitching, "Sorry you had to hear that."

"No problem…what did that last one mean though?" The English translation for the word meant alluding away from its meaning and Rose couldn't help but be a tiny bit curious. She also hoped that talking to Jinx would help distract her – even if it was just a little bit – away from the pain.

Jinx smirked, letting out a small chuckle, "Trust me you don't want to know."

She picked up the needle and thread, closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. This was going to hurt, she realised with certainty, but she couldn't afford to take a sedative beforehand; it would only damage her concentration levels, and the blood loss was already doing one hell of a job on that front.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

Jinx suppressed the urge to groan in pain, because there was no denying that stitching yourself up was going to be painful without some form of pain relief. Damn her for only bringing the strong stuff!

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

She focused on the needle, trying to tune her mind out of anything else.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

She wondered how she could've been so stupid to not see this coming. She was a psychic; didn't that count for something?

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

The amount of times she had needed to stitch herself up over the years was daunting. Death had her on his waiting list many times during her life, and she had managed to narrowly escape them each time.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

Sometimes she thought of her gift as a curse – it had brought her pain and misery, death and destruction, grief and sorrow – but there were times like these where she was thankful for it because it meant she could live.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

The only annoying thing was the pain. Being stabbed was not exactly a normal event in most people's lives, whether they be animal, hybrid or alien, so what exactly made her a prime candidate in being stabbed.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

Going through it once was annoying enough, but this was her third time and for a moment, she had believed it would be her last.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

Why had that been the case? Why had she survived when she had been so certain of death? It may have not been a clear vision, but she had felt the life go out of her in her vision as she decided to take the place of the Doctor.

_Pierce, stitch, pull..._

Maybe she'd been wrong. It had been unclear. There was a possibility she had made a mistake, and that seemed more likely seeing as she was still alive.

"Jinx," She felt a hand grab gently at hers, and she looked up to see Rose staring at her, concerned despite being a stranger to her, "I think you're done."

She looked down and noticed her wound had been stitched up. She had almost had gone back down to stitch up some more without realising it – so much for concentrating on the stitches.

"Right…" She nodded, and then grimaced as with focus brought the clarity of pain, "Ow…"

She reached down, delicately trying to mind her new stitches, and pulled out another bottle and hypodermic needle. Once the contents of the bottle were in the needle, she carefully placed it against her vain and injected the clear liquid into her bloodstream.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she waited and smiled as the pain alleviated – not completely but just enough for her to ignore the discomfort.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked as she watched Jinx smile through a drug induced haze.

"Me? Fine…" She sighed, "I'm just glad…no pain…well, little pain. Gotta love that stuff…works wonders." She tried to sit up, but Rose pushed her back, "What?" she questioned.

"Should you be trying to move?"

She shrugged, "Well, we can either stay here or go out there. And the damn idiot who stabbed me forgot to check if I had anything so I still have my trusty knife meaning I can unlock that cage door." She waved a hand towards the metal, "Now which would you prefer?"

"Getting out of here obviously, but wouldn't there be somebody waiting outside…you know, guarding us."

"Ah!" Jinx raised a finger in the air, then turned her head to study her finger muttering, "Why did I just raise my finger in the air?" Rose watched as Jinx frowned at her finger and lowered it again, hoping that her drugged up state would wear off soon, "Whatever…where was I? Oh yeah!" Jinx raised her finger once again, but it went unnoticed this time, "That's why you will create a distraction and I'll be waiting at the door, prepared to make sure they go to la la land."

_Aren't you already in la la land?_ Rose wanted to ask as she watched her make her way carefully over to the cage door.

"It'll wear off in a minute." Jinx answered without having to hear her ask the question.

"You know when you do that, it's kind of freaky."

She shrugged, then smiled a loopy smile, "There are things in life Rose that are just plain freaky."

"You didn't need to tell me that." Exclaimed Rose, laughing lightly at the admission, "Meeting the Doctor opened me up to a lot of strange things."

She bent down, pulled out her knife and within seconds had unlocked the door, "Oh he tops the cake as far as strangeness goes." She agreed, "Completely and utterly crazy! And weird! And strange! And I'm…listing off a load of adjectives…for no apparent reason."

"Yes, yes you are."

Jinx nodded, "Ok…then. We should probably wait until I'm not all loopy, shouldn't we?"

Rose smiled, "Yeah, it's probably for the best."

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**AN: You know the drill...review and another chapter shall grace your computer screens. :D**


	32. Chapter 31

**AN: Ah, my birthday is today and I've actually managed to have updates on my stories on time - alleluia! Although I was dissapointed when I realised I only got four reviews for my last chapter which was less than I usually get...it wasn't that bad, was it? Anyway, on with story...**

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The Doctor frowned as he tried to find the door with someone – Markus was the name the guards had given to him - standing in front of it. So far he had found plenty of doors but had found a distinct lack of people standing in front of any of them.

This was getting ridiculous!

He continued to walk on for a few more minutes until he saw that up ahead a sharp corner became prominent. Had the guards mentioned turning a corner?

He thought back to their conversation.

They hadn't been specific as far as him having to turn a corner or not. Maybe that meant he had to.

He jogged up until he reached the corner and looked down. Empty. Not a person in sight.

He sighed and decided that he was just wasting time. He'd have to use the tracker he had.

Pulling it out, he turned it on. It beeped a quick beep and he banged it as it attempted to beep again. Why had he even put a beeper on it?

He set the search parameters for human. His eyes widened, 65 matches? Ok, that wasn't good. Even if he made a search for the ones in the vicinity, he was that far away from the main ballroom if you excluded the need to pass through wall to get there.

Ok, what to do then?

He thought for a moment. Maybe Jinx had found Rose…he did a search for a human accompanied by Jinx's species.

His smile widened. Eureka! One match. So she had found her. Brilliant! Now where were they?

He headed down the corner and a loud and screeching beep let out. He quickly came to a sudden halt "Oh so that was why I put the beeper on?" he muttered, "Wrong direction."

He turned around and went back the way he had come. Walking forward the beeping became small short beeps. He smiled again. He'd run into them in no time.

-------

They had made it out of the room. For some reason it had been unguarded, but Sleev – as Rose had informed Jinx – must have thought that she would be in no condition to move and Rose had already failed at an escape attempt so it hadn't mattered to him that it had been left unguarded.

Boy, was he in for a surprise when he returned!

"Do you know where the Doctor is?" Rose asked, and Jinx shook her head; she had lapsed into silence after the first few effects of the drug she had taken had worn off. She was no longer loopy, but she hadn't been very talkative now that it was gone, "So you're just hoping we'll wander into him?" She nodded, "Are you ever going to actually reply?"

"Maybe." She replied, a sly smile teasing at the edges of her lips before she once again returned to silence.

Rose could not help notice that she kept clutching her side; maybe she was in more pain than she was letting on. A twinge of sympathy sprang out towards her, she had had no idea what it felt like to be stabbed. Thankfully travelling with the Doctor had never offered her that unwelcomed opportunity, surprising seeing as how much danger their lives consisted of.

"Does your side still hurt?"

She shrugged, "Comes and goes."

"Do you need to take anymore of that stuff?"

"Nah, it's fine." She assured her, avoiding eye contact, "I need to be clear headed if we're going to get out unnoticed."

Rose motioned towards the empty hall they were walking on, "It's not as if it's very crowded." Rose frowned at the sudden thought, "Although, why is that?"

Jinx looked over at her and frowned, "Good question…"

Rose eyes were drew back to the empty hallway as she spotted something laying on the ground, "Hold on," she said, quickening her pace, "What's that up ahead?" When she reached the item, she bent down and picked up the end of a broken heel, "I think it's a heel."

Jinx's eyes fell on the broken heels she had left there earlier. Her whole body stopped moving as she stared transfixed by them.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, noticing her sudden stiffness.

Jinx didn't reply, but simply lifted up one of her shoes slightly, studying the sole for a mere moment. Her breath hitched in her throat and she then moved to raise an arm against the wall, leaning her whole body into it as the realisation dawned on her.

Her mind flashed to a future – or in this case, the alternative past – where she had not broken her heel.

She would've wandered into the room, as she had done so, the knife would've entered her stomach and she would've been dead within ten minutes; she would've suffered a slow and painful death and no matter what had happened; no matter how hard Rose would've tried, there would have been no one to save her.

She had suffered a fleeting fight with fate, and she had barely come out of it with her life. One simple fault in footwear had saved her life – saved by a heel seemed to be an odd term to think, but it was truthful; had she not broken her heel, she would've died.

It was even odder to think of her death being so close to becoming reality, but why exactly had she been saved? Was it a random coincidence? Or did fate have a reason? She could not deny the possibility that there had to be something more, outside the realm of reality. She had survived death too many times for it to be a simple fluke.

Tears sprung in her eyes; tears of happiness that she was alive. _Fuck, I actually survived. _She smiled a watery smile.

Rose watched on concerned, as Jinx leaned against a wall. It was not the tough hiccupped sobs, but silent tears and had she not been so close, Rose would've barely believed she was crying at all.

"Jinx…" She placed a hand against her arm, "Hey, it's okay." She said reassuringly, "It's okay. What's wrong?"

She shook her head, "Nothing's wrong." She leaned back, smiled again and threw her head back in laughter, the odd sparse teare still streaming down her face.

"Then why are you crying?"

"I just saw how I died." Rose eyes widened, "And a shoe saved my life."

Rose blinked; _did she just say a shoe saved her life?_

"Yes," Jinx exclaimed through laughter, "Yes, I did."

_Ok_, Rose thought, _that's still weird._

She didn't even think of saying that aloud.

Jinx stiffened, looking back over her shoulder, "Quick, " She said, her face once again serious. She pushed Rose into a nearby room, "Someone's coming."

The door opened easily and they headed into the room. It was dark and the only source of light available was coming from the sky outside – the Passing of Angelsidus was still overhead and casting off an almost magical glow.

Jinx put a finger to her lips, silently telling her to stay quiet, pulling out her knife in the process; she crouched – her unarmed hand carefully pressing against her injured side at the movement – and then motioned for Rose to head further into the room, away into the darkened corners.

They each took a breath, shared a look of concern and waited for the danger to pass.

------

The Doctor moved forward, the steady beep accompanying him as he went. He looked at his device, _not far now, _he realised.

Beep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He jumped at the sudden noise, "Ok, wrong direction!" He turned around and walked forward.

Beep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Huh?" His eyes widened again, "Another wrong direction?"

The Doctor looked around; there was only one door and apparently two wrong directions. The only other option was that Jinx and Rose were in the room with the door.

He did a quick scan to see if there were any other beings near them and found – to his delight – that other than a Time Lord in the vicinity, they were alone.

He reached forward, turned the handle and entered the room.

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Jinx's body stiffened as she heard the sound of harsh beeps coming from outside the room. Her grip on the knife in her hand tightened as she listened intently to see if whoever was outside was contemplating coming in.

She tried to catch a glimpse of who was coming in, but the room was too dark to make out a figure.

The door opened and she swung the knife regardless.

**To be continued...**

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**AN: *cue eerie music and flash of lightning* Mwuhahahahahahahahaha! OK, I'm done now with the evil laugh and cruel cliffhanger. Review if you want to...**


	33. Chapter 32

**AN: Sorry, I've barely been able to get through to anyone for the last month or so. My internet's been all messed up. Well, here's the new chapter. And I believe I've reached the 300 review mark so can I just say a giant THANK YOU to all who review. You're brilliant! Truly brilliant people! :D Well, on with the story...**

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_Previously..._

_The door opened and she swung the knife regardless..._

_------_

A glimmer of light entered the room as the door opened and Jinx's eyes widened as her eye caught something of large importance.

It was a flicker of black converse that made her realise that she should probably wait next time before swinging a knife. Then again, she had always been impatient. It lead to her gaining too many problems, but she had never learned.

As the light pooled in, Jinx tried to make the momentum of her swinging arm stop, closing her eyes in the process.

When she was not greeted by the yelp of pain she had half been expecting. She opened one eye to see that her knife had made a slit on the toe of the converse, but it had managed not to hit flesh. Thankfully.

She pulled her arm back, and the slit became a black slice of a smile in the shoe. It looked odd to her eyes, and so she looked away and instead forced her gaze upwards.

Up…

Up…

'_Oh, there it is. The look. Hell, I hate that look.'_ She thought, as her eyes locked on to the Doctor's surprised ones, _'This is not good.'_

She gulped.

And stood up, knife still in hand.

The Doctor's head swivelled from her face, to her hand, to his own shoe.

Back and forth. Back and forth. And then back and forth again until he stopped with his gaze on her hand and reached out, yanking the knife from her grip.

Raising his other finger, her glared at her wide-eyed, and said, "No more knives for you!"

"But-" She protested, but he cut her off before she could speak.

"My shoe! My poor shoe is an innocent victim. Why is it every time I see you my poor shoe has to pay?" He looked solemnly down at his damaged converse, the slit of a smile she had carved into it glared up at him as a frown, "You know, converse don't come cheap."

She scoffed at him, "You don't even have a job? You steal your money, using your sonic screwdriver to hack into cash machines." She pointed out, forgetting for a moment that she was going to let him have his moment. She had _almost_ stabbed him in the foot.

"But my shoe…" He went back to staring at his injured comrade, before mumbling, "Rose got me these shoes." His head shot up, look around the room, "Where's Rose? My scanner says she's in here."

"I'm here." Said a voice from the shadows. The Doctor's face widened into a grin as she stepped out, and rushed into his arms, "God, I've missed you." She whispered, "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

Jinx looked at them for a moment before a twinge of jealousy ached at her heart. It was the look of relief in their eyes, the look of awe and happiness…and love. She had had that once, and just seeing it again made her yearn for a past she could no longer have. Forcing her feelings away, she took this moment to slip out of the room, pressing the light switch and flooding the room with light as she did so.

Her departure went unnoticed by the two in their embrace.

--------

There was no doubt that Sleev was angry. That much was clear…simple even. Seeing the room empty had infuriated him, so much so that he had in a fit of anger torn apart the room.

Edmund was glad that she was safe. At least he hoped she was, but he could not help but let his eyes focus on the new pool of red that had coloured the ground. If she was injured…if she was dead…no, that couldn't be possible, he reasoned. There would be no reason for Sleev to be angry at her disappearance if she didn't have a pulse. She had to be alive – she had to.

And he was glad. This had been his fault. He had been the one to get her into this mess. He deserved whatever he got, but she had been an innocent victim who deserved to go free. And now she would get that.

"Where is she?" Sleev pushed Edmund against the wall, fingers curling around his neck, trying to cut off his air. Edmund clawed at the hands, prying – as best he could – fingers of his trachea, "Tell me!"

He gasped as Sleev released the pressure long enough for him to reply, "How would I know?"

"You planned this…" He whispered, the louder once more, "You planned this! I know you did! You and that woman planned this!" He snarled, "Well, I stabbed her. If she's even still alive, she won't get far."

"Don't you go near her!" Edmund shouted, before he pushed his body weight forward, and Sleev in a moment of inopportune imbalance fell. He took his opportunity and ran for the door. He knew how they worked, how the organisation worked; he could do this, he could escape.

Girk – he recognised the brute of the man - was the one guarding the door. Before he could turn, Edmund put the hilt of his hand forward, putting as much force into his bad leg as possible. The action proved effective as the man scrambled down in pain as Edmund pushed past him, turning left for the nearest exit.

If he could get to the crowd of people then he would be safe. _They_ didn't sort their messes in public. Enignamia had too much concern over who found out about them and he had enough influence in the surrounding communities to raise a few eyebrows and whispers if he suddenly started ranting about a secret society.

Footsteps followed from behind him as he advanced forward. His enemies were fast approaching but he was – thankfully - faster. He was glad now that he had been spent a year training for the games. Sure he hadn't been fast enough to compete, but he had improved his speed nonetheless.

He turned a corner, half-expecting another goon of security but found it empty. Two more corners and he'd arrive at relative safety. He turned his final right corner and found a force suddenly collided with him, expelling him downwards. He hit the floor gasping for breath, which had been surely knocked out of him by – he looked up – Oleg, personal bodyguard and all round muscle enthusiast.

Behind him, a familiar face stepped out from behind Oleg and looked down at him in shame. He glared back in contempt – knowing in his heart that he had been defeated; there was no escape now. And he had been so close.

"You disappoint me."

Rubbing at his aching chest and still managing to catch his breath, he let out a half hearted laugh, "At least…" he wheezed, "I'm not…" A cough, "…scum like you."

He looked away for a moment, "I'm sorry you feel that way." His voice was emotionless.

Edmund scoffed, "You're not sorry. If you were, you wouldn't have made me partake in this in the first place."

"If you had done what you were meant to do then I wouldn't have to sacrifice you in exchange."

Edmund's eyes widened, "What?" With a flick of the wrist, the man motioned Oleg and within seconds, strong rough hands grasped at Edmund's arms, hauling him up on to his feet forcefully, "You can't do this!" Edmund shouted, "You can't kill me."

"This is your own fault, Edmund." He shook his head, "Thank all those who are pure, that you were never my son. Your father would be as disappointed in you as I am."

"You can't do this to me! My father hated this stupid organisation!" Edmund struggled against his captor, "He was your own damn brother and you knew he hated Enignamia; he despised it with every fibre of his being and just because he's dead, it doesn't mean you get to change what he believed."

"Ah," he leaned forward until his face was inches from Edmund's; "You forget that you have no say in the matter my dear boy. You will be sacrificed whether you like it or not. If you had done as I had asked, you wouldn't be here. Blame no one but yourself."

"Uncle Jeuni…" He reasoned, seeing no other option, "Please don't do this."

"Just take him away Oleg. Get him prepared. I have better things to do."

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Jinx leaned against the wall behind her, her eyes were alert and her ears strained to hear oncoming footsteps of the murmurs of voices in the distant. She had become used to this role of 'casual observer' and over the years, it had proved useful when she was staking out potential targets - houses, people and the odd bank here and there. She was good at reading people, and as such she knew how to adapt a personality to suit an encounter with the enemy.

Yet in order for that persona to prove even remotely effective, she had to look the part and at this very moment her dress was bloodied, her make-up was shot to hell and her hair was messed up. Even the contacts in her eyes were turning against her and every so often her vision would blur as the edges of her eyes seeped pain.

If anyone came down the corridor and clapped eyes onto her, then no lie she could ever come up with would get her out of this bad situation. It was this reason she needed to be even more vigil than she usually was.

It did not help her in any way that she was in pain. Her hand instinctively went to her side, tracing the half ass attempt of a stitch job she did on her dress to match the slightly better stitch job that marked her skin.

Her wound was tender now, the knife handle was sure to have left a bruise around the area - her skin would be patched black and blue by the time she got the chance to change out of her clothes. She had half a mind to take another shot of painkillers, but she only used that stuff in extreme situations and earlier had definitely been an extreme situation. That stuff made her loopy, unfocused, apathetic; none were good qualities to have when you were trying to keep alert to danger.

Sometimes she wondered what was really left in this life of hers. Nothing really mattered beyond living each day as it came and most of the time she was running from planet to planet, chased after no matter where she went. It didn't even help that she ended up running into the Doctor and throwing herself back into the firing line. She was constantly in danger, and even though she could defend herself – born as a soldier, bred as a fighter, broken as a lover – life had become hard. Too hard. And she was tired; hell, was she tired of it all.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes and focused on the lingering pain of her wound for just a moment – only a moment – and went back to listening for the danger lurking around the corner.

--------

The Doctor let out an internal whoop of glee as he spun Rose around. Externally thought, he laughed in joy before he smiled at her, the edges of his mouth stretched so wide in happiness that they almost threatened to stay that way permanently.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, the Doctor pulled her back – although he wouldn't mind hugging her forever – to take a good look at her, trying to imprint the memory into his mind. He had spent so much time worrying, listening to Jinx's forebodings that a small part of him – a very small part of him – had feared he would never see her again. He knew it had been stupid to worry so much; she was Rose Tyler after all and she always survived. Rose and him were a winning team; the golden team and it took more than that to break them apart.

Although…

He looked at her – really looked at her – and finally saw the blood on her hands. Panic filled his mind, and he brought them up to his eye line to inspect, "Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Is this blood yours?" His questions came fast and without pause, and Rose struggled to hear him at his slightly faster than normal pace of talking, which was not good when he had a tendency to talk fast anyway.

"Doctor!" She shouted, interrupting him from his quick fire questions, "It's not my blood. It's Jinx's." The Doctor frowned, "She got stabbed trying to get me out. She stitched herself up and she's fine. You saw her. I haven't got the chance to wash the blood off." She looked down at her hands and felt a wave of nausea pass over her. She truly hated blood, "It's…" She looked down at her hands and lapsed into silence.

The Doctor pulled her in for one more hug, which she gratefully accepted, trying to ignore how the diary jammed into his side. One problem at a time, he decided, as the book's contents danced in his memory, demanding attention like a petulant child.

First they would deal with the situation at hand. Rose had ended up being kidnapped, Jinx had ended up being stabbed during her attempt to rescue her and there was a secret organisation involved that he had little knowledge of that was seemingly terrorizing his friends and he was not letting them get off lightly. No one messed with his companions! He needed to find out why and to dish out the well deserved comeuppances.

After all this was a fairly pressing matter…but he didn't want to be distracted and if he didn't bring up the worrying revelations his last glance upon the diary had brought about then he would be distracted because of it. Yes, the diary was a distraction – a big one – and no one would disagree with him that it was practically his duty – his urgent duty – to rid him self of his distraction by finding out the loaded question.

He took a breath and braced himself, "Rose," he asked tentatively, she looked up at him smiling, "You aren't ever planning on leaving me?"

A mixture of emotions flashed across her face in the moment after he opened his mouth. They ranged from hurt to confusion to anger to sadness as well as a number of others, which ended up creating a great wad of guilt in the pit of his stomach.

"Do you want me to leave?" She barely managed to say the words, hardly believing in the possibility that she would ever have to ask them.

"No!" He practically shouted, "Of course not! I want you to stay! I was just worried you didn't want to…" He shuffled his feet before he leaned on the balls of his feet, hands in pockets and his head bobbing slightly awkwardly from side to side as the embarrassment and awkwardness of having to explain without revealing his knowledge of her diary got to him, "…you know, stay."

Rose's face softened and she reached forward, pulling a hand from out of his pocket so she could hold it, "You are a bloody idiot." He frowned. He _hadn't _been expecting that, "You know that? A big old idiot!"

"I'm not old." He muttered to himself, "Am I old?" He thought about for a millisecond and reminded himself of the fact he was over 900 years old. If that wasn't old then he didn't know how he could possibly be called young…

Rose ignored his self-asked question, and gave his hand a little tug to regain his attention, "I never want to leave you. I-" He watched her struggle to find the words for a moment as she pursed her lips together. She sighed before she continued, "-am your best friend. You're mine. No matter what happens, I will always want to travel with you. You're the Doctor-"

He interrupted, having suddenly found the urge to say, "And you're Rose."

She looked at him for a moment, before she promptly burst out laughing. He joined her within seconds, and they stood there collapsing in a fit of giggles. When they had managed to maintain their composure once again, Rose turned to him and said, her words serious, "There is nothing I want more than this life, than your friendship, than everything that's happened since we met. Okay?"

He nodded, giving her hand a squeeze, and sticking on his winning smile, "Alrighty then."

To be continued...

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**AN: Tell me what you think... :D**


	34. Chapter 33

**AN: Sorry for the lack of updates but getting settled back into a routine of essays, large amounts of homework and somehow managing to resist the resounding urge to attack all those who annoy me takes a while. Hopefully updates will once again be regular. Although I do have one question to ask my readers about this story. I do have an idea to spring this into a sequel, which would involve Jinx and her past a lot more as well as the Doctor and Rose's relationship but I also wouldn't mind ending it with simply this story which could end in death or no death for any of the characters (Yes, that is purposeful mysteriousness. I do have a number of endings in my mind at the moment.) so I just felt the need to ask is whether many people would prefer to keep it as one story or will I add a sequel? I ask because depending on the answers I get, I will shape the story around whether it shall stay as one or two stories. Just thought I'd ask. Well, anyway, on with the story...**

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Jinx placed a hand against her clammy forehead, wishing she was somewhere much cooler at that particular moment.

Her eyes looked over her shoulder to the door behind her. What exactly was taking them so long? How long does a reunion take?

A noise alerted her senses and she sunk behind a pillar near the door, looking around its edge out of caution. Her eyes widened as she saw a man; probably a few years older than Rose if she were to hazard a guess, being dragged, unconscious, by the arms by two black suited goons. Behind him was Sleev and Jinx's anger flared, her hand moving to where her knife was meant to be. Feeling its empty pouch, she cursed the Doctor for his ill-timed removal of her knife.

They stopped at a nearby wall; blank, plain, mundane in every sense of the words. There was nothing important at all about it. Her eyes narrowed, taking in the wall for any unusual features. Her eyes spotted a small indent just as Sleev's ring encased hand went into the minute alcove, twisting once again in a pattern.

Left, left, right, left, in, out, in, right, left, left, out.

She'd have to remember that.

The walls parted, revealing a hidden elevator within, and she could not help but appreciate how new age it was of them. Secret compartments were all the rage these days, but most people never got round to actually getting one installed, let alone one which housed an elevator.

They stepped on, taking no care to avoid the unconscious man's legs scrapping harshly on the floor as they pulled him forward.

Sleev stopped.

Jinx froze at his sudden action.

He turned his head, sniffed the air once, twice…a third time before turning to look in her direction. She ducked behind the pillar just in time to see a smirk form on his lips.

She expected him to shout out to his guards. She imagined herself trying to fight them off in a failed attempt (She was injured after all, with no weapon and outnumbered. No matter how much she had acquired in fighting skills over the years, she was at a great disadvantage. She would be the first to admit that.)

Yet nothing came. Nothing. And she couldn't help but wonder why?

The elevator doors closed with a ping and she stood their breathing raggedly for a moment, as the adrenaline of being almost caught dispersed.

Had he seen her? She shook her head, he must have. No, he had. She was sure of that. Absolutely sure. Impossibly sure, but he hadn't done anything about it. That didn't make sense…unless he wanted her to come after him.

Her hand ghosted against her side once more and she slowly let a smirk form, anger asserting its dominance within her.

If he wanted a fight, he would get one.

She looked out from behind the pillar, saw the wall was once again a simple wall and walked over to the door. She knocked once, just in case they were in the midst of a more-than-friendly reunion, before walking in.

The Doctor and Rose turned to her, surprised, and noticed the grim look on her face.

"What is it?" Rose asked, breaking the silence first, "What's wrong?"

"I just saw Mr-Stab-A-Lot and his two goons take some man up in a hidden elevator."

"Hidden elevator?" The Doctor sounded almost delighted at the prospect.

Rose however looked horrified, "Edmund…" she whispered; "It must be Edmund they took."

The Doctor turned to her, confused, "Who?"

"Edmund." Rose looked exasperated, "I just told you about him. He was the other one kidnapped."

"Oh…" He said nodding his head as realisation dawned on him, "Edward…right."

"Edmund." Rose corrected.

"Look," Jinx interjected, "We don't have much time. And firstly if we're going to get up there, we're going to need another ring."

The Doctor's eyebrows rose as he looked at Jinx, "What happened to the one you had?"

"Stolen."

He let out a scoff, grinning, "That's a first." Jinx glared at him; his grin fell, "Of course, it was under bad circumstances. I mean you got stabbed. That would of course be an unfair advantage. Are you alright? You look pale. You okay? You know maybe you should lie down. We can't rest though can we…hmm; you know I have just the thing." He dug through his pocket, pulling out an unopened packet of pills, "Here, Doctor's orders." He grinned whilst he handed her the package whilst she was still caught off guard with his ability to talk himself out of a conversation.

"Uh…" She looked down at the pills, looked up again, "How did you get these? They're banned on fifty planets."

He shrugged; Rose looked amused and confused beside him as she glanced down at the pill packet, "What are they?"

"These are the motherload of caffeine-filled pain alleviators."

"That's a good thing, right?" She questioned.

"Only if you aren't allergic to Procazine."

The Doctor snatched the packet of pills back off of her, shielding them to his chest as if he was protecting them from her…or maybe it was the other way around. She couldn't be sure; not with him.

He studied her, "Are _you _allergic to Procazine?"

She let out an irritated sigh, "No, of course I'm not. Now will you give me the damn things?"

He loosened his protective hold of the package and once again placed them gently in her hands, "Here you go."

"Idiot." She muttered to herself as she opened the packet and dry swallowed two pills.

"I heard that."

"Maybe you were meant to." She muttered, still not raising her voice. He grinned and rolled her eyes at her.

"So what are we going to do to get another ring?" Rose asked, "You going to steal it or something?"

She looked down at herself, "Not in these clothes." She sighed, "It's a shame. I actually like this dress. It hides all of my things so well." The Doctor scrunched up his face, "My emergency items." She clarified. He still looked confused, "The stuff I used to stitch myself up…my knife...my money..."

His mouth formed an 'oh'.

Jinx continued, "Ok, I need to get up to my hotel room. Get changed. Get some more supplies. Then we head back down. Steal another ring, and go save Edward-"

"Edmund." Rose once again corrected.

"Sorry, Edmund." Said Jinx, correcting herself, "And get my revenge on the guy who stabbed me. Maybe even bring down a secret organisation in the process."

"Sounds simple when you put it like that." Rose smiled.

"I know…" Jinx let out a sigh, "It's kind of annoying seeing as it's so complicated in reality."

"And also won't involve revenge." interjected the Doctor.

Jinx turned towards him with a fierce glare, "He stabbed me."

The Doctor took a step towards her, "I know you're sort of revenge, Jinx. An eye for an eye won't work here."

"Well, maybe you're wrong!" She, too, stepped forward, bordering in on his personal space, "Maybe a revenge tactic works best in some situations. Ever thought of that?"

"I won't let you hurt people; it's wrong! You know that." He voiced his opinion in a manner only accustomed to the Doctor, and Jinx felt intimidated despite all her experience when she caught a glimpse of his eyes. It was hard to believe that someone so carefree usually could turn so serious on the flip of a switch. It reminded her of the darkness within him; the darkness he had seen in his lifetime and as such, it reminded her of her own darkness. She didn't waver though; giving him as much of a glare as she was receiving. "No matter what they've done to you killing someone is not a victory march."

"Who mentioned killing anyone?" She shot back, her voice growing louder.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rose pushed herself in between the two of them, "The Doctor's right! Revenge is not the answer, but…" She paused for a moment, "There are ways to get justice, isn't that better?" She looked between the two of them. Neither looked even remotely like they would concede to the other, "And anyway this isn't about either of you!" That made them turn to look at her, "Edmund is in danger. He needs our help and if this secret organisation is as secret as you tell me it is, then we're the only one whose can help him." The Doctor and Jinx bowed their heads in guilt, "Glad we agree. So let's go."

Jinx moved to the door, holding it open as they walked through it. She caught a glint of light hitting metal and her eyes locked on her knife. As soon as the duo walked through the door, she quickly picked it up from the ground, slipping it into her holster.

Maybe revenge wasn't always the solution but sometimes – just sometimes – it was.

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**AN: Review if you feel the desire to... :D**


	35. Chapter 34

**AN: Sorry for the slow updates. I've been working on some original fiction. I'm even going to enter NaNoWriMo. I don't fancy my chances at actually writing 50,000 words in a month seeing other than a general idea I haven't worked out a plot but still, I'm going to try. lol...also I'm pretty sure I've decided to keep this as a oneshot. No sequel in the works. Well, enjoy the chapter. :D**

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Jinx peered around the edge of the door into her room cautiously, her eyes trained with an accustomed distrust of her surroundings. She closed her eyes, listening to her surroundings; ebbing in to the future. Assured nothing was going pop out of her, she dropped her guard and walked breezily into the room, leaving behind a slightly amused looking Rose and the Doctor.

Rose pulled a face, pointing over to Jinx as she mouthed something to him. The Doctor frowned, mouthing back, "What?"

She tried again to mouth something to the Doctor, which only gained to confuse him more.

"What?" He mouthed once more.

Slightly frustrated, she mouthed once more.

"What?" He spoke aloud, slightly louder than intended. Jinx threw him an odd look from over her shoulder.

Rolling her eyes, Rose shook her head, "Forget it."

"What?" He said innocently, following her as he walked.

"Doesn't matter."

He protested, "Of course it does!"

"It doesn't." Rose replied.

He frowned, "But I want to know." He whispered to himself.

"Do you want me to get any stuff sent down?" Jinx asked, heading over to the bedroom, "Clothes? Belongings? Laser spanners?"

Rose turned her head to the Doctor, "Laser spanner?"

The Doctor looked wistfully away, "Ah, I miss that spanner…"

"I'll take that as a...no?" Jinx questioned.

"No, it's a yes." Rose quickly amended, "I need to get out of this dress. It's covered in blood."

"Not so much of a problem for a red dress."

She looked down at her dress, and felt her insides twinge. She hated the notion that she was covered in blood, it made her feel uneasy. She knew that no matter how many times she washed this dress, she would never wear it again. "Yeah, but still..."

"Ok, well, there's a Hyperscreen in my room. You'll be able to sort it out in there or in the bathroom; there's another one in there."

"I'll take the bathroom!" The Doctor shouted, quickly making it towards the nearest room.

"That's the bedroom." Jinx pointed out, causing the Doctor to turn direction, "That's the closet." He turned once again heading towards the nearest door. He stopped, pointing to it, "Bingo. We have a winner." He smiled before slipping inside, "Still doesn't ask for directions…" she turned to Rose, "Does he?"

Rose laughed, "No. Never."

Jinx merely smiled as she slipped into the bedroom.

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The Doctor quickly went towards the Hyperscreen to retrieve his well worn and much appreciated brown pinstriped suit. There was enough to be said that he looked well in a black tux, but for some reason every time he wore one – no matter how good he looked in it – something always went wrong - always!

He was beginning to think that he was the cause of it, which was almost an absurd idea…unless someone had put a curse on him. He really hated having a curse placed on him, but it was unlikely if he was going to have a curse placed on him that it would involve his attire. Just in case though…he really needed to stop wearing black suits. They always brought him trouble.

After he changed, he slipped out Rose's diary. He couldn't help it. He was really trying not to read it but there was an undeniable pull to it similar to that of the appeal of soap operas. He couldn't help but read it, much like he couldn't help but watch 'Humans in Space'. There was an addictive attachment and so he was helpless to read Rose's diary…at least that was his excuse.

_Dear diary…_

_I feel a wondrous lifting of a burden. I no longer feel the need to leave. I've realised I have more options than I thought. I think…that I have hope. So I'm going to prepare myself to tell him that I'm in love with him. It's the right thing to do…I think._

_Maybe when I tell him, he'll feel the same way. I've realised that I can either leave and go back to my boring old life or I can take a chance and admit how I feel. I have nothing left to lose._

_Hopefully he'll feel the same way about me as I do about him. Maybe even one day we'll get married. An outer space wedding – how wonderful would that be! My mum would love it…that is if she didn't kill the Doctor first. _

The Doctor gulped – Kill? Why would Jackie try to kill him? What did he do to deserve death by the hand of Jackie Tyler? And what a death it would be…he had experienced nightmares of being killed by Jackie and none had been pleasant. The memory alone of them made him shudder.

_I mean my mother would probably kill him if we were…you know…together. In that special way. She'd have to get used to it though…I'd just have to keep an eye on her once we tell her the happy news, but who knows? Maybe she would be happy…at least I think she wouldn't kill him in order to keep me happy. She's my __mum; she wouldn't try to kill him unless he hurt me._

_He wouldn't hurt me though…he loves me. At least I hope he does…_

The Doctor sighed, leaning against the edge of the bath. He didn't know what to do…he had no experience on things like this. How was he meant to fix this?

_Maybe…_

He shook his head.

_No...__That wouldn't work._

His brow furrowed in concentration as he focused on his thoughts.

_Would it?_

He let out a sigh.

_No…bringing on another companion to distract her wouldn't work. _

In all honesty he didn't want another companion. He liked being with Rose. He had grown to respect her and enjoy her company. Bringing on another companion would only mess with their delicate balance.

Plus who would even be suitable? He couldn't just bring in anyone. His companions had to have something special about them, and not many people had that special quality about them.

There was always Jinx…but she would never want to travel in the Tardis – something he could never fully understand why – and he wouldn't want her around for too long. They worked well together for a short time, but she had a knack for disappearing when she grew impatient and bored, which was quite frequent in occurrence.

He and Rose worked well as a team. As long as he could fix things, then nothing needed to change.

Emotions could be buried. Feelings could be hidden. Love took many forms, and Rose was merely confused. He had to believe that. She would soon grow to realise that while she loved him, it couldn't be in the way she thought she loved him.

He hoped that would be true, he had little else to hold on to but that hope.

-------

Rose had managed to get her clothes after a few awkward attempts to get the Hyperscreen to work. She was almost surprised when her clothes suddenly shot out, almost hitting her in the face.

She turned around, towards Jinx who had changed out of her purple dress and into a pair of well fitted black jeans and a tank top. She pulled it up slightly, carefully examining her stab wound. She slowly eased off her white bandage, with a pained wince, to reveal slightly stained with a patch of red blood on it. Her pale white skin was mottled with a series of dark and patchy bruises around the stitching.

"You okay?" Rose asked in sympathy. It had to hurt, and just the look on Jinx's face made her want to apologize numerous times.

Rose couldn't help but feel guilty. If she had ran off then she wouldn't have gotten kidnapped, and then she definitely wouldn't have needed saving and Jinx wouldn't have gotten stabbed.

"Yeah," She said, grimacing, "I've been through worse. Trust me, this is nothing." She leaned forward to reach for a new dressing, "Hey, could you do me a favour?"

"Of course."

Jinx nodded towards the wooden door to the left of Rose, "In the closet, there's a bag. Could you take it out and bring it over to me? I need to get some things out of it."

Rose did as she was asked. The bag was surprisingly heavy despite its small size.

"What's in there?" Rose asked, as she slowly placed it carefully on the bed.

"Take a look."

Rose stared in shock as she opened the bag and found herself staring down at a handful of money – the currency was not one she had seen beyond today, so she presumed the money was local, but still it was a lot of money regardless.

"Wow…" she finally said, causing Jinx to smirk, "How did you get all this?"

"Well, honestly…" she shrugged, pressing down on the bandage now firmly secured on her abdomen. She carefully began wrapping her waist in gauze, "I stole it."

"You stole all that?" She took one more long look at the money.

Jinx glanced at her, amused at her surprise and nodded, "Yeah." She then began to laugh lightly, "It wasn't as if I could get a job."

"Why not?" Rose asked, and watched as Jinx paused for a moment, as if caught up in a memory.

"I don't stay in one place long enough to need a job, so I steal it and once I use all that I need, I deposit the rest to the nearest charity."

"That's really…kind of…" Rose struggled to find the words.

"It's criminal, but ends with a slightly happy turn. The ends justify the means as far as I'm concerned."

Rose nodded, it was nice of her to give money to charity but it was stolen money…she could understand though. Travelling with the Doctor had helped her understand the grey areas of life more clearly, "Well, what about the lottery? Why do you always steal? You can see the future; you could just do the lottery."

Jinx smiled, "The lottery?" Then nodded, "I did that once…well, almost. I went into the store. Focused as hard as I could on the numbers and I saw them. Every single one. And I had bought the ticket. And I waited, just waited." She smiled ruefully to herself, "And I won, but I didn't cash it because I knew…"

"Knew what?" Rose questioned, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Knew that I'd be an idiot to cash it in."

Rose frowned. She was being particularly vague, which was not helpful when her answers only brought about more questions in Rose's mind, "Why?" She asked finally when Jinx didn't continue.

"You don't want to know."

It was also slightly annoying habit, Rose realised, "You can tell me, you know."

"I can't…not really. I don't trust you or the Doctor enough to give the full story." She then added, "No offense."

"None taken, but couldn't you tell me something."

Jinx took a deep breath, and her face turned stoic, "I have a past, and it likes to catch up with me on occasion so I run as fast as I can to get as far as I can away from it." Her smile returned again, although it was more uneasy this time, "There. That's something."

Rose couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere had changed, quickly turning, developing an awkward air. Jinx laughed uneasily in a poor attempt to lighten the heavy cloud that hung in between them now; her attempt was unsuccessful and Rose almost regretted treading into her past, but there was a new knowledge she now held.

Beneath her vague responses, Jinx had revealed a moment of truth. The lack of trust made Rose a little more wary of her, but she could tell that there was pain in Jinx's past. She didn't know what, but she understood pain and so she would not tread anymore into her personal life.

Rose smiled, her lips curled tightly upwards, "You know…" she began, backing out the room slowly, "I'll go see if the Doctor is finished with the bathroom. I need to change anyway."

Jinx merely nodded, and went back to looking through her bag of money.

To be continued...

**AN: You know the drill...review! Only if you want to, of course...**


	36. Chapter 35

**AN: Well, I'm back and I survive NaNoWriMo. I managed to get over 50,000 words - booyah! lol...so I've decided that this story will be kept as one story. No sequel. No more Jinx. I just don't have the motivation to write another Doctor Who story. I've been a little dissapointed with the specials. They just aren't the same as a proper series, so hopefully the Christmas one will motivate me into writing DW fiction like I used to. I'm still continuing the story so don't worry...although I wouldn't be surprised if people just stopped reading...this story has changed so much from what I started it out as. I don't know if I've become much more angsty or something but this story just keeps getting darker unintentionally. If this is bad, I apologize. I wrote this late, haven't seen a proper episode of DW in a while and have been writing for different characters for over a month but hopefully it'll be okay. Also I'm thinking of getting a beta...I've always gone without one for all my stories but I just think my writing's getting worse...urgh...I'll shut up now. I'm such a pessimist...and a cynic..and a whole load of other negative adjectives that if I go on I'll probably just end up depressing people. Ok, on with the story...**

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Edmund let his head gently hit against the wall he had been secured to. His wrists – bound by the thick metal shackles – were red raw from his attempts to squeeze his hands out. He tried to readjust his sore wrists to a more comfortable position but no matter what he did, nothing helped.

He let out a sigh.

Everything was a mess.

He couldn't believe he had been so foolish to even think being anywhere near his uncle's plans was a good idea. If he hadn't been so willing to follow the man he had been forced to see as a replacement father after his own had died then he would have never became part of the organisation; he would have known nothing to the alternative and he wouldn't be slated to die at the hand of a bunch of freaks, desperate for a universe of purity.

"I'm an idiot…" He said aloud.

"Yes, you are." Sleev's voice came from the observation room above where they were holding him in. His figure appeared at the window Edmund was facing and as soon as he clapped eyes on Sleev, Edmund found himself – once again and regardless of the pain it would surely cause him – pulling at his restraints, anger pushing a potent strength into his veins.

"Let me go, you son of a bitch!" He shouted, as metal dug into flesh, drawing blood in the process.

"Now, now…" Sleev replied condescendingly, "No need to get worked up. Seeing as my mother is dead, you calling her a bitch is hardly going to rile me up. You were there when I killed her after all."

Edmund's jaw clenched, pushing back the memory in his mind, "Sleev-"

"Don't call me that." He spat, his face morphing from the calmness it held mere moments ago to anger.

"Considering, you're going to kill me, I'm going to call you Sleev because there is not much you can do that gets any worse than death."

Sleev pursed his lips tightly together, "And I was going to be nice…"

He shrugged, more to himself than to his prisoner and it was the look on his face that worried Edmund. He had been witness to many deeds of Sleev's he had never wished to see; stuff that haunted his memories, leaving black marks in years that should have been happy. Edmund knew there was little the man could do without regret and so the look on his face was worrying.

Yet Sleev did not say anything more, simply walked away silently, leaving Edmund to contemplate whether there was a fate worse than death.

----------

The Doctor could understand the need the steal a new ring.

He could allow the fact that a distraction was in order.

It was easy to acknowledge that the distraction would involve things he didn't approve of.

He could not condone, however, the violence.

It was Jinx who managed to lure out one of the men with a few whispered words in his ear, a gentle touch on the man's arm and a false promise of something more in her well placed smile.

It took her no more than two minutes to get him to where she needed him. And it was the Doctor who ended up frowning when as soon as he moved to talk to the man, Jinx shot out her elbow and landed it straight into the man's abdomen before she delivered an perfectly executed blow to the head, knocking the man instantly unconscious.

"Why did you go and do that for?" The Doctor asked, anger flaring his irises.

"We needed a ring." She said as she slipped it off the fellow's finger, "And I got us one. What's the problem?"

"I meant…why did you have to knock him out?"

Jinx looked down at the man and back up to the Doctor, her face disbelieving as she sarcastically replies, "Oh, I'll be sure to politely ask next time if he wants to give me a ring that will successfully aid in bringing down the organisation he belongs to…" She pauses for a moment, "And then death and me can get reacquainted over a couple of shots. I was hoping for some shots of tequila but it's going to be more likely it'll end up as a few gun shots to the gut, but what can you do?" She finished her sarcastic remarks with a shrug.

The Doctor merely glared at her in response, his silence expressing more words than she would ever listen to if he said them aloud.

Jinx moved to bend down and winced, her hand automatically going to her side.

"You know, this would be much easier if you would help." She asked, indicating her head towards the unconscious body that needed to be moved before someone happened to wander down the corridor. Rose may have been on lookout but she could only cover one end and although Jinx had no qualms with knocking out another person, she knew the Doctor wouldn't let her do it again, not without protest.

The Doctor reluctantly grabbed the man's arms and half-carried him, towards the nearest darkened alcove. He was surprised how many there actually were. They really needed better lighting and unconscious body aside; anyone really _could_ get up to anything in these pocketfuls of shadows.

Jinx straightened her spine, and her eyes narrowed as she looked at the wall. In it, the words 'Bad Wolf' had been carved into. She slowly smoothed her fingers over them and felt a jolt hit her system.

Shaking her head, she stepped away as the Doctor – grim faced – came up to her. "Never again." The Doctor whispered, meeting her

Jinx moved past him, checking one last time to make sure the body was safe and securely hidden. She paused momentarily, surprised as something inside her flared a warning. Jinx could not help but wonder what in those two words he had spoken had brought about the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.

The Doctor walked ahead, unaware of her sudden discomfort and she quickly catches up, ignoring her sixth sense for now.

Feelings alone were meaningless. They could not help her, not without accompanying images and her mind blocked her from those snippets for now.

She would have to wait.

They met up with Rose in the next corridor and she watched as the Doctor greeted her with a smile.

Another feeling flared within Jinx – a mixture of happiness and devastation – and she could not help but wonder what was happening to her. She rarely dealt with only emotions in her future glimpses, but here it was happening twice and both times without apparant reason.

She looked between Rose and the Doctor and the happiness in the present flared for a moment before the devastation in their future won her over. Jinx raised a hand to her heart, checking it was still there, and once assured that it was, she tried to desperately push away the feeling that it had been ripped out. She had already experienced that once in her lifetime; she had no desire to have it occur again. Let alone to experience the echo of another's future heartache.

"There is darkness in your future." She said, unable to help herself as her mouth ignored her mind's command.

The Doctor and Rose turned back to her, and the emotions flared.

What was wrong with her? Her power never affected her…not like this; never like this, but as she stared at them, she could not help it when her power grew in potency.

Their future was set in stone and the power of grief and heartbreak weighed like an inadmissible burden.

"Jinx," Rose asked, moving towards her cautiously. Jinx could see gold reflected in her eyes and with horror, she realised it was her own eyes that were burning gold, "Are you okay?"

Words that were not of her own doing came pouring out of her mouth, "There is darkness in your future; a consuming pain that takes away all, stealing everything that it is good. There is little time left… "

The Doctor placed a hand on her arm and they both gasped as images burned her eyelids.

_She could see falling…she could see Rose falling into a bright white light…blue coating her attire…and screams filling the air…_

_There were echoes…a view of sand…love - that she had no right in feeling as it did not belong to her - ebbing her soul as she stared at an approaching Rose…heartbreak in her gaze…_

Jinx broke her arm away from the Doctor's, breaking the connection as her eyes returned to their normal colour and not the gold that had previously pierced her irises.

She staggered back, her hands coming into contact with the wall. She needed to get away from him – from what she had seen - even though she knew the damage had already been done. She could see it in his eyes; he had seen; he had felt and he now knew what his future held because of his own low level telepathy.

She had not wanted to feel those things and in her need to push them away she had inadvertently pushed them into his mind.

"I'm sorry…" Jinx choked out. She meant it. No one should have to witness the future; not when it consisted of that – an oncoming doomsday, "I didn't mean to let you see…"

"When?" He merely replied, sounding low and dark; the voice of someone on the verge of losing everything.

"Soon…"

His jaw clenched.

She continued on, clarifying, "There isn't much time left…a few months maybe…" She swallowed back a lump, "I'm sorry." She repeated her apology, knowing that they were meaningless anyway.

"What's going on?" Rose, from out of the sidelines as a forgotten third party, stepped forward, demanding an explanation to questions she wasn't even sure of.

The Doctor turned round, slowly, and Jinx's was at the perfect angle to see his face shift from serious and worried to playful and easy. He was always the good actor; always able to hide his emotions so well under an easy façade. She could understand why he wanted to. It was so clear to her that he wanted to protect Rose from everything that could cause her harm - a noble intention.

"Nothing. Jinx saw something in the future. We haven't got much time left to get to Edmund." His face grew determined, a good counterpart to his well place aversion to the truth, "We need to hurry."

The Doctor rushed ahead, determination coating his stride. Rose merely stood, looking between his retreating form and Jinx, who had once again managed to perfect a stoic expression.

"You said there was darkness in our future." Rose echoed her words from earlier, and hearing them from her lips, Jinx could not help it when something akin to guilt threatened to make herself tell Rose everything, but she pushed it back; pushed it down; pushed it away because it the only thing that she could do.

"If they manage to sacrafice Edmund, then there is a darkness in all our futures."

It is a half-truth. Jinx had no knowledge _yet_ of what Enignamia would do if they managed their sacrifice, but if there was one thing she and the Doctor had mastered, it was the knowledge to know when to keep things a secret.

"And that's it?" Rose questioned, eyes narrowed.

Jinx nodded, "That's it." She said, and walked past her, clenching the ring in her hand until it left red smiles in the palms of her hand.

Rose pursed her lips as she watched them walk away. She was torn. There was something they were hiding. She knew it, but she couldn't prove it. They would never tell her the truth, but in the Doctor's eyes she could see something was bothering him. The smile may have given off a carefree air but she knew him better than that. His eyes had betrayed his lie. There was something wrong.

With a dejected sigh, Rose quickly caught up with the two. She would get the Doctor to tell her. She had put up with him keeping things to himself and she deserved to know the truth. The first opportunity she could get to talk to him alone, and then she would make sure he would tell her.

It was the least she deserved.

---------

**AN: For the record, in case you didn't get what I was referencing in the vision. It was the events of Doomsday. So this might prompt the Doctor into some territories he never even thought to think of in terms of Rose and of course, naturally, it might unearth some feelings because of it. It may be angsty but I will make sure there is some happiness to come from my angsty attitude...ok, well, review if you're still reading...because I have no idea if people still are. Yes, completely my fault for participating in NaNoWriMo and leaving this story alone for over a month...but just review if you want to...**


	37. Chapter 36

**AN: Sorry for the delay. Thanks to everyone whose reviewing. I promise to try and have my updates set to a regular schedule from now on. The chapters a bit longer than usual to make up for it and I even threw in a teaser for the next chapter at the end. Now on with the story...**

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The air had grown thick with tension.

Rose hated it.

The Doctor's brown was furrowed so low that Rose half feared it would soon become permanent, Jinx looked like she was on the verge of running – towards what, Rose wasn't sure of – and she, herself, felt simply clueless. It wasn't as if anyone was stepping forward to offer any clues.

The Doctor strode forward ahead of them, and Rose noticed that Jinx had edged closer to her.

"You shouldn't worry. I'm the one who put him in a bad mood. He saw something that he really shouldn't have seen. It was my fault."

"What did he see?"

"It was nothing." Rose raised an eyebrow at her, "Nothing to concern yourself with." Jinx amended, and Rose resisted the urge to glare. She was not an idiot. There was something going on, and she knew – she didn't know how she knew – but it had something to do with her.

"I know about the diary by the way." Jinx offhandedly commented, quickly diverting the course of the conversation. Rose noticed, but said nothing. She wouldn't get anything out of Jinx; not now, at least.

"The diary?"

"The fake one you gave the Doctor, the same one that made him pretty much obsessed over the fact you may or may not be in stalker-like love with him. I know you're not psychotically in love with him, although there is love between the two of you. I've seen it." She motioned towards her head, "In here."

Rose wanted to enquire further, but Jinx had continued talking before she had a chance to.

"It was an ingenious idea. I would've stuck in a few sexual fantasies if I had written it, because he just seems like he'd squirm if he read those."

"Did you read all of it, all the way to the end?" Rose asked.

Jinx waved a hand slightly, "Yeah mostly, I gave up around the time you started rambling on about wedding dresses and honeymoons. For the life of me, I always get bored as soon as someone mentions eternally pledging vows of love dressed in white whilst surrounded by a the living nightmare of a little girl's fantasy."

"So not the marrying type?"

Jinx shook her head, "Not when it involves…what was it? White doves and unicorns? Really? I have no idea how he hasn't caught on yet. I mean it's so glaring obvious that only a dunce like him would be blind to it." She laughed lightly, "I'm not the marrying type, but love…" Her voice softened, "I get that. I just never understood why it needed all the extras. I like things like that simple."

Jinx looked away. There was sadness in her eyes that Rose empathised with. She had even considered reaching out, but it would have been a pointless action. Jinx did not seem like the person who liked to be comforted.

"You were on about the end of the book. Tell me I didn't miss out on some gooey dooey gold." She said sarcastically.

Rose stopped herself just in time from bursting out in a fit of laughter, "Gooey dooey?"

Even Jinx looked horrified by her choice of words. She swallowed back a grimace. "Sorry, I lost myself for a minute." Shaking her head, because she really needed to stop talking before thinking, she quickly added, "It won't happen again." Even though she was sure it would; it was a force of habit with her. "Go on."

"Oh, it's nothing…"

"Oh, please, the look on your faces screams everything but that." Jinx replied, "If you don't want to tell me then that's fine, but don't say it's nothing."

"I might have copied out a passage from a romance novel and pretended it was my own fantasy."

Jinx smirked, "Does this passage involve sex by any chance?"

Rose's cheeks tinted red.

"I'll take that as a yes." They both laughed, and for a moment Rose couldn't help but like Jinx.

She may not have trusted her motives completely; there was still something about her that made her wary and with both her and the Doctor keeping secrets then it wasn't a giant leap in logic that would bring about that distrust.

Yet in this moment, Jinx didn't seem so bad, and Rose missed having a girl to talk to. She had had many friends back home, but none of them who she could even talk to about the Doctor. Her former life at the Powell estate had never known anything about aliens, save for what could be seen in the Ridley Scott classic.

"Priceless. If only I could get a picture of the look on his face." Rose nodded in agreement, and they laughed again.

-------

The Doctor could hear them laughing behind him. A part of him wanted to shake his head, and mumble something about clucking chickens which of course, would've brought his thoughts to Cluksville, which was only a few planets shy of Barcelona – the planet, obviously – and had blue chickens which three beaks. They could cluck like a choir, a clucking choir obviously but with three different clucks each, he had rarely heard anything as cluckety as a clucking chicken choir.

He shook his head, pushing that part of him away. The other part of him was worried. Extremely worried.

Jinx's visions were usually set in stone. She was one of the few people who could alter time without risking numerous paradoxes in the future, but even the benefits of her species had an end. Paradoxes were still a risk, but to a much lesser extent. And even she knew that fixed events were not allowed to be altered; just like every other species knew. He could not tell from her vision, if what he had seen was a fixed event.

There was just no way he could tell.

Yet there had to be a way to avoid it. He couldn't allow Rose to be lost. Rose was…

Rose had saved him and he needed her. She kept him sane; kept him feeling alive after everything in his life had died. She had been his salvation…

She had saved his life.

And Jinx had prophesied their separation. And that hurt. It did. It really did. Pain ebbed when he had glanced at Rose after having seen what he had seen. A part of him wanted to keep his eyes solely trained on her, to make sure she didn't just disappear, but the bigger part of him refused him this. Logic told him better than that. Logic told him to look away and think clearly, but all he could think was that he didn't want to lose Rose.

And Jinx told him that there was only a few weeks left. Maybe months? That wasn't even remotely enough time to formulate a plan, to work out the variables, to figure out if it was a fixed event or otherwise. He needed time. Lots of it. And to a time lord, a lack of time wasn't usually a problem. In that department he was usually golden, but now…

The Doctor froze.

_Golden…_

His eyes widened, and he glanced back at Jinx momentarily.

_Of course!_

The gold that had been in her eyes; that was not of Jinx's doing. He had recognised that power; it was the power of the bad wolf, and like a sponge she had absorbed the power through the psychic link - a warning from the seams of time.

That meant that there was still time. He had been issued a warning from the most unlikely of sources.

"Doctor!"

He turned back as Rose called his name. He blinked, "Huh?"

"Where are you going? The elevator's here."

He frowned, "Sorry, what?" Rose nodded towards the wall.

Jinx was slipping the ring on to her finger. She closed her eyes, pressed the ring into the whole and under her breath, muttered, "Left, left, right, left, in, out, in, right, left, left, out." Each direction spoken was soon followed by the action itself.

Within moments, the elevator was revealed from its hiding place.

"Open sesame." Jinx said with a smirk, as the doors opened.

"Do you always do that with opening doors?" The Doctor asked. Rose threw in a questioning look. She, too, had heard the words spoken from Jinx before.

Jinx merely shrugged, "Pretty much when it opens because of my doing."

"Right…" The Doctor nodded.

The trio stepped on, and the doors slid shut behind them.

-------

Elevator music was being played once again.

Jinx frowned, silently cursing the irritating jingle being played. Rose, oblivious to the music, waited anxiously. And the Doctor smiled, moving to the music.

The elevator gave a ding, and the doors opened.

Three mouths hung open in surprise as they took in what they were seeing.

They stepped out of the elevator, each of them consumed by their own form of shock.

Jinx broke the silence.

"That is such a cliché." She said, as she took in the obnoxious creation in front of her, "If you're going to create a secret society, then who in their right minds puts up a giant statue of…"

Rose's face fell as she took in the statue's appearance. She turned to the Doctor, "Does that look a bit like Elvis to you?"

"…a deity then you might as well…" Jinx stopped talking, and raised a questioning eyebrow, "Who?"

The Doctor tilted his head, and squinted, "It does a bit." He said to Rose. "If you squint…not too hard though because then it looks like a giant blur and blurs resemble blurtanians and you can't distinguish between them at all."

"Who's Elvis?"

The Doctor and Rose shared a look. Shock was nothing compared to what they were feeling.

"What? Stop looking at each other like that. It's disturbing in a 'you-know-something-I-don't' kind of way."

Rose gave a small smile and said, "It just is a bit of a shock." She admitted.

"A big shock." The Doctor added.

"I mean, it's Elvis. He's the king of rock and roll."

"Thank you very much." The Doctor said, impersonating the man himself. He ran his hands through the edges of his hair, and had put his brainy specs on in place of black sunglasses.

Rose grinned at the Doctor. Jinx merely looked more confused.

"Yeah, I don't know who he is so this, whatever this actually is, is pretty much pointless. Let's move on and away from the statue."

Jinx moved to walk away, and Rose and the Doctor followed; the latter singing 'I ain't nothing but a hound dog' until enough elbow prodding convinced Rose to join in

Jinx looked back at the duo, and rolled her eyes. There were in the territory of the enemy and they were singing. Ridiculous.

After a few minutes, she came to a stop suddenly and the Doctor and Rose just barely managed to stop themselves from colliding into her.

They stopped singing.

"Jinx?" Rose questioned.

"Two hallways up on the left, large door. Inside they're preparing for the ceremony. In two minutes, Edmund-"

"It's Edward." The Doctor said.

Rose shook her head, "No, it _is_ Edmund."

"Really?"

She sighed, "Yes."

"Edmund," Jinx continued, her voice louder this time, "is going to be brought in and tied to the ceremonial table. They'll chant for seven minutes, before one of them will come forward and an additional two minutes will result in a knife being plunged into Edmund's side."

"Ok, how do we stop it?"

"We need to get inside." The Doctor said. "Unnoticed, preferably."

"Oh come on! How are we all meant to get in there unnoticed? There are three of us." Jinx pointed to Rose, "She got kidnapped by them." Then at herself, "I got stabbed by one of them." And she brought her hand towards the Doctor before letting it drop half heartedly, "And well…I'm not even going to start on you."

"Oi! They haven't even met me."

"That's the point! You'll drive them insane."

"I do not drive people insane." Jinx and Rose shared a look, each resisting the urge to laugh. The Doctor turned around to Rose, "Rose, do I drive people insane?"

She took a moment, looked at Jinx, looked at the Doctor's pouting face before she said, "No, of course not." In the straightest manner she could muster.

The Doctor turned to Jinx, triumphant, "See, I do not drive people insane."

"You're like a restless puppy in the backseat. You'd drive anyone but a five year old insane."

He gave her a short pout, "I'm the Doctor."

"Really?" Jinx over exaggerated a gasp, "And here was me thinking you were the Nurse."

The Doctor ignored her while Rose stifled a giggle, "If anyone can do it then I can. Where's your optimism, Jinx?" he asked in a tone of voice that was on the verge of scolding.

Without missing a beat she stuck up her thumb and pointed in a direction, "About a few planets over that way. It got lost on the way to Neverland."

Rose smiled beside her as the Doctor rolled his eyes, "She's got a point though. We won't all be able to go in."

"You see, she agrees." Jinx smiled, "_She _makes sense." Her smile slid off, "So…"she drawled out, "Which of us is going to take the plunge?"

"The plunge?"

"Well, one of us has to be bait. I would normally offer but, well," She pointed to her side, "Stab me once, fool on me; stab me twice…then I'm an even bigger fool the second time."

"I don't remember that saying going that way." Rose said with a grin.

Jinx feigned ignorance, "Really? I could've sworn it did. Are you sure?"

Rose nodded.

The Doctor looked on amused.

"Well, I opt for the Doctor to be bait. If we're lucky you'll annoy them to surrender."

"Oi!"

"It does make the most sense." Rose amended, as the Doctor pouted again.

"Yeah," Jinx continued, "Rose can create a diversion while you're distracting. Then I can climb over to the balcony on the other side and once the distracting and diverting are in full swing then I can get down and release Edward."

"Edmund." Rose amended.

"I thought it was Edward." The Doctor said.

"It's Edmund."

Jinx let out a frustrated sigh, "Oh, they're practically the same. Does it-"

Rose interrupted, "Hold on, you said you'd climb across to another balcony."

"Oh, did I not mention? The room has two upper balconies. One of which is placed directly above Edmund. The door to it is too heavily guarded for me to make it over there in time, but the other one is easy enough to get into. All I have to do is get across."

"Can you do that?"

"I'm a professional thief." She replied with confidence, "Of course I can."

"Won't that hurt?" Rose asked, motioning her hand over Jinx's injury.

"I'm still drugged up. I'll be fine." She turned to the Doctor, "Can you keep talking long enough for me to get across unnoticed?"

Rose snorted a bit, but quickly covered it up with a cough, "Sorry."

"Oh, of course you can." Jinx said with a smile.

"Ok, so Rose will set off a cue. It'll be loud. I'll climb down quickly and get Edmund free and then…"

"We run?" The Doctor suggested.

"Yeah, pretty much." She closed her eyes, sensing what little time they had left, "Ok, we need to hurry. Rose will come with me upstairs to the balconies. You go down there. Wait for two minutes after they take Edmund in then you make your entrance. Try not to get caught."

The Doctor threw her a grin, "Aye aye Captain."

Jinx moved away for a moment, letting them have a moment to say their good lucks.

The Doctor and Rose looked towards each other, and smiled. "You better come back in one piece, alright?"

He nodded, "Wouldn't have it any other way. I prefer my appendages firmly attached."

"So do I."

They grinned, "Be careful, Rose. Your mother would have my head…well, she'd probably have my head for dinner, and the rest of me as leftover for the next week."

Rose laughed, "I will."

He reached forward and gave her a quick hug before he turned and pointed at Jinx, "Remember no revenge schemes. I will not have any blood on your hands."

Jinx rolled her eyes, and gave a wane smirk, and walked away with Rose without saying a word.

**To Be Continued...**

------

**AN: Ah I've got part of the next chapter written - almost a thousant words - so I'll give you a little teaser.**

_Open-mouthed, knife raised in hand, Sleev looked across the room and asked, "Who are you?"_

_"Well, that's what I said, but did they listen?" The Doctor shook his head, "Oh no, they didn't. No, they just tied me to a post naked."_

**lol...Well, with that image I leave you. Review if you enjoyed. :D**


	38. Chapter 37

**AN: Here's the new chapter. I've been sporting a headache on and off for the last few days so I would've had this up on Saturday had it not been for that. Sorry. Anyway, enjoy! :D**

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Rose and Jinx came around the corner running. The hallway was empty, just as Jinx had seen. She came to a halt, just outside the large wooden door. She held up a hand. Rose stopped.

"What is it?"

Jinx shushed her. She closed her eyes, pressed her hand against the door and focused.

"Go back around the corner." Jinx whispered to Rose. She was about to ask why when Jinx interrupted, "Don't ask why. You'll see."

Rose hesitated for a moment before she reluctantly went back around the corner, her head peering out around the edge.

Jinx opened her eyes, raised her hand and knocked. She then moved off to the side of the doorway.

Rose leaned back around the corner when the door opened.

A man looked out at the empty space in front of him. He was sure he had heard a knock. And yet no one was there.

Jinx, hidden by the open door, moved her hand again.

_Knock…knock…_

The man frowned, and moved into the corridor in order to peer around the door.

Jinx smiled, "Hi."

And then she punched him in the throat. The man gasped, his cry of surprise stolen, leaving behind a ragged breath.

Her fist collided into his stomach. He doubled over. Jinx quickly brought her hands to the collar of his jacket, and spun him around; throwing him against the wall as she quickly closed the door he had entered through behind her.

The man recovered quickly from her attack. He advanced, moving his fist forward to punch. She ducked, and drove a hard punch at stomach level.

Something collided with her head. An elbow, she realised after a dazed moment. Her ears rung, but she was lucky. Her own blow had lessened its impact.

Jinx quickly moved back, blinking in an attempt to rid her head, but she was caught by the throat and once he was assured of his grip, he lifted her upwards by the throat; her feet lost the solid contact of the ground beneath. She began to kick at her assailant, struggling in her increasing panic, as he applied pressure to her throat. He was an expert, she could tell, had probably done this hundreds of time. Not many knew the exact spot which would induce unconsciousness, but she was losing consciousness fast.

Suddenly, there was a sound of crashing. The grip on her neck loosened. Gravity forced her back on solid ground. Shards of glass surrounded her.

Jinx blinked repeatedly, confused by what had just happened.

She looked up, and saw Rose. In her hand, she held the remains of a broken vase.

"Did you just-"

Rose nodded, "Yeah. I did."

There was silence as they stared.

"Thanks."

Rose looked between Jinx and the unconscious man. She smiled. "No problem."

She let the remains of the vase drop to the ground, and reached forward to give a hand to help Jinx up. She took it.

"Let's go." Jinx said, rubbing at her neck. Her voice sounded slightly hoarse. "We wasted a lot of time."

She opened the door, and they both entered. Jinx pushed her down until they were both crouching. She pointed over the balcony. They crawled over, until they could see the view below.

Rose's eyes widened. Below them, the room was filled with twelve people, shrouded in robes. Their faces were covered, all save for two: Sleev and Edmund. The latter was being strapped to what she could only presume was an altar.

"We've got to save him." Rose whispered.

Jinx nodded, pressing her lips together in a suppressed laugh, before saying, "I know. That's why we're here."

Rose shot her a look.

Jinx smiled. "Ok, I'm going to climb over there as soon as the Doctor comes in."

"Will he be okay?" Rose asked, "The Doctor?"

"Sure. As long as we can create a distraction for him." She looked around the space surrounding her. A large vase caught her eye. Jinx pointed. "Seeing as you're so good with vases, I think you'll have no problem with that one."

Rose smiled at where Jinx was pointing.

"I think I'll do alright with it."

"Good. That's good." She murmured offhandedly. Rose looked over at her; she could notice that she'd closed her eyes again.

Rose couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to see into the future. She wished she had that back when she'd met Jimmy Stone. He'd messed up her life good and proper. She'd probably be in university if it hadn't been for him, but then again, if it hadn't been for him, she'd have never met the Doctor. The former should have been the life she'd wanted but a life without the Doctor could never be a life she'd want. Not now. Not after he'd came into her life.

She smiled. The Doctor. He made things better. Just like his name, he made people better. He'd made her better.

And she loved him for that; for who he was, for what he did. He was the Doctor. And she wouldn't exchange meeting him for anything.

With a sigh, the diary popped into his head. Jinx had told her earlier how the Doctor was reacting to it. A twinge of guilt surfaced. She should tell him the truth about it. It was only right. She didn't want to risk her life with the Doctor over a prank.

"Rose."

Jinx interrupted her from her thought. Rose looked at her; she was nodding towards the door below. The Doctor had just sauntered in.

"That's my cue. Now you remember yours. It'll be a wave."

Jinx waved enthusiastically to demonstrate.

"Oh, and once you push it, get out of here. Head for the elevator and hide nearby. Don't let them catch you." She smiled, "Good luck."

"You too."

With that Jinx moved over to the carefully placed ledge. Thank heavens for the rich having urges to paint detailed masterpieces. Her hands splayed over smooth paint. Nothing to grab a hold of.

She looked below her. And it was a long way down if she fell.

"Why am I doing this?" She muttered to herself, as she climbed over the balcony railing. She closed her eyes, saw a future where she crossed safely over; saw an alternative where she fell and broke her neck; saw another where her foot slipped and she got noticed by every eye in the room. There were countless others, each of which differed from another.

_You're saving a life._ She reminded herself.

Jinx hoped the first future would come to pass. She quite liked being alive.

-----

The Doctor opened the doors to the room and walked in. Twelve heads turned to look at him; ten of them had faces obscured by their hoods. The other two consisted of the one being sacrificed and the other doing the sacrificing. Sleev was holding a knife over a gagged Edmund. The Doctor was almost entirely sure that if he had not made his entrance at that particular moment then the sacrifice would've gone ahead.

"Hello there." He looked around the room and smiled, "I'm the Doctor. And I heard there was a nice sacrifice going on. Thought I'd pop in and say hello." He came to a stop in the middle of the room. He turned around 360 degrees and his eyes caught movement. Jinx was climbing across. Rose was on the balcony. He needed to keep twelve sets of eyes on him and away from them.

Easy-peasy.

"Now, this reminds me of a time on Caceta. Have you heard of it? It's a planet about…" He paused, thinking, scratching at the back of his neck. "Oh, about 36 million light-years away from here. It's a lovely place. Purple sky, purple trees, purple rivers. Did I mention they're a big fan of purple? Well, they are. Still… lovely place and all. So I was there a few months back and I came across these ugly brutes, a bit like you lot; not that you're ugly. I can't really see with the hoods. Well, I can see your face." He looked over at Sleev, "Lovely bone structure. Shame about the dress sense."

Rose, who was placing the vase to the edge of the banister, quickly covered her mouth at that to muffle the laugh.

"Now, as I was saying," The Doctor continued, "Here I was walking straight into a sacrifice. Not a pleasant one may I add. And I-"

The Doctor was interrupted from his ramblings.

Open-mouthed, knife raised in hand, Sleev looked across the room and asked, "Who are you?"

"Well, that's what they said, but did they listen to hear my answer?" The Doctor shook his head, "Oh no, they didn't. No, they just tied me to a post naked."

"What?"

"No, they didn't really." He looked away, momentarily wistful before grimacing, "They left me in my boxers, but I might have well have been naked; taking away my suit. Who takes away a man's suit?"

Rose remembered that day. He'd come back only in his boxers. When she'd asked what happened to his suit; he hadn't replied. Only went to the control panel, turned and twisted a few dials and pulled a lever here and there.

When they had landed, he walked out – still dressed in only his boxers – and told her to stay there, muttering something about not wanting to risk another paradox, considering her history. When he'd come back, half an hour later, he was fully dressed and smiling.

He never told her what exactly had happened. She had left it at that.

--------

As the Doctor continued talking, Jinx chose to tune him out, not wanting to burst out laughing as he drew his audience in. She forgot how amusing his rants could be, distracting and amusing. It was not a good time for her to be distracted now – she was barely stopping herself from falling as it was - but a minute or two later she did catch him saying something about getting a sonic screwdriver out of his sock using only his teeth.

_Impressive_, her mind thought, then shook her head. She didn't want to know. She really didn't.

Well, she didn't need to know. Not now. Now was not the best time.

By the time she had managed to climb her way over, she wished she had taken a few more painkillers. Her side was aching.

The Doctor's voice drifted up from below. Crouching, she looked over the balcony, being careful to not be seen. She didn't want Sleev recognising her.

"-and don't even get me started on how difficult it was. I couldn't use my big toe for a week. And I quite like my big toe. I can play the banjo with my big toe. Difficult to do mind you, but-"

He stopped talking suddenly.

The Doctor sauntered forward, towards Sleev. He stopped in front of him and squinted, taking check of the knife in Sleev's hand before he abruptly reached forward, yanking the knife away from Sleev. He then tutted at him once he was out of reach from the shocked sociopath.

"Don't you know knifes are dangerous? You could conveniently sacrifice a person therefore killing them in the process in order to appease a god that may or may not exist in this universe? Didn't you know that? It's best we get rid of this." He looked behind him and knowing it was clear, threw it into a dark dank corner. "Now that's better. Don't you feel better knowing that I put that knife out of harm's way?"

Sleev's eyes flared in anger.

He moved towards the Doctor, who moved back cautiously.

Jinx smiled. This was going better than planned. Sleev was moving exactly under where Rose was. If this was timed perfectly, he'd get hit and she wouldn't have to lift a finger.

"Woah! Woah! Now hold on!" The Doctor said, holding up his hands to slow the angered man's movements.

Sleev kept walking. The Doctor still retreated.

"Now, let's talk about this."

Jinx moved to raise her hand.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do." Sleev began, "And it doesn't involve-"

Jinx waved frantically at Rose.

Rose pushed the vase.

The vase made contact with Sleev's head. He crumpled under the sudden force and was unconscious within seconds.

The others in the room grew frantic, eyes wide in shock. They looked up, but none of them could see Rose, who had carefully moved away from the edge. Jinx could still see her though, and she mouthed 'Run!' at Rose.

"Well, I think I should be leaving now, don't you think?" The Doctor said, from below. He had a hesitant grin on his face.

He ran.

And just as Jinx had foreseen, the others followed. Some of them shouting and screaming after him, but most of them she knew were hightailing it out of there.

They were most likely rich and pompous and had a high standing. If they were to be found out, then their lives would be on show for the entire planet to see. They would be ruined, and so they did what was natural to them: they ran in order to preserve their lifestyles.

------

As soon as the coast was clear, Jinx climbed down. Luckily for her, there were a few decorative pieces in the room that were placed below her made a very good substitute ladder. They would work well enough to hold her weight going down.

She hoped, at least.

She climbed over the railing and hung from it, easing herself down. She tentatively placed a foot down on one of decorative pieces.

It creaked.

Jinx swallowed. Not a reassuring sign, but she didn't have much of an alternative available to her.

She placed more weight on it and let her other leg join it before letting go of the railing. Holding her breath, Jinx stood very still for a moment, half expecting it to fall underneath her.

Nothing happened.

She let herself breath again. And then began to move down, carefully, until her feet came into contact with solid ground.

Solid, dependable, uncreaking ground.

Turning around she moved towards Edmund, who was staring at her, eyes wide and imploring. They spoke volumes to her, at least the volumes that said 'Help me!', 'Get me out of here!' and 'I don't want to be a sacrifice' along with a few selective others.

She smiled at him as she got out her knife. His eyes widened even more. Sensing his dismay, she quickly attempted to assure him.

"Hi, I'm Jinx. I'm here to save you Edward. The knife's not for you. Don't worry, Edward."

He relaxed again. She removed the gag from his face.

Even though, considering the circumstances involved him being saved, he couldn't help but say, "It's Edmund."

"Oh not this again." She mumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes, "Hear, how about this? I call you Ed. The problem is solved then."

"I don't like being called Ed…"

She put the knife against the leather straps, cutting them and releasing his from his bonds, "I'm saving you from being sacrificed. We won't see each other after today. I'm calling you Ed."

Edmund nodded, "Fair enough."

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine."

_Liar_. Jinx thought, but she didn't call him out on it.

She helped him sit up, surveyed the damaged he had undergone. Her eyes quickly picked up signs from his movement.

Head, ribs, arms, wrists.

All of them were affected in some way. There were bruises. Lots of bruises. That much was obvious, but she couldn't surmise what else. There was too little to go on from sight alone.

"Can you climb?"

"Up there?" He surveyed the path Jinx had taken coming down. The pieces were relatively strong, but he doubted it would hold his weight. He shook his head, "No, I'd be too heavy. It'd break."

"And people say having muscle is a good thing…" Jinx looked over her shoulder, the room was empty; the few people who had been in the room had chased after the Doctor, but the room wouldn't be empty for long.

Her eyes lingered towards Sleev. Her fingers tapped against the handle of her knife, temptation… Revenge. So close. So near, but hardly a fitting time.

She put the knife back in its sheath.

Jinx then closed her eyes, prodding at the possible futures.

"Too many variables…" she muttered after a few moments.

Edmund turned to her, "What?"

"I can't map out a proper safe exit in my head. Too many variables. Too much pressure. Too little time." Jinx turned to Edmund. He looked warily at her, "Ok, how do you feel about running?"

"Good."

"Right, let's do that."

They ran.

---------

The Doctor was running, corridor after corridor. The sound of footsteps sounded behind him.

Running had seemed like such a good plan earlier, but usually corridors branched off at some point. Why were there no branches in this corridor?

"Doctor…"

He looked around at the sound of his name. Rose was looking out from a room nearby; her blonde head just visible as she ushered him towards her. He quickly moved into the room, shutting the door behind him.

The sound of feet rushed by on the other side of the door. They leaned against the solid wood, relieved.

"Well, that went well." Rose surmised after a comfortable amount of time had passed in silence.

The Doctor and Rose looked towards each other and laughed.

**To Be Continued...**

**AN: Another chapter down...hmm, this may be the time for reviewing...**


	39. Chapter 38

**AN: Ok, this was meant to be up BEFORE the episode aired today, but my internet is horrible today. I've already tried this three times; each time the internet cut out just as I was editing the document. Ok, new who, I've got to say I'm loving it. Matt Smith is no David Tennant but he makes the role his own. He is still undeniably the Doctor. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but to each their own opinion. I like Matt Smith as the Doctor. I even wrote a small fic around the new ep.**** Although the Tardis... hmm, I know it's all about changes but it's going to be a while before I'll get used to the interior. I do miss the old coral interior. Plus what is that white thing on the door of the Tardis? Anyway...on with the story...**

------------

The Doctor and Rose were at the elevator by the time Jinx and Edmund had managed to get there.

"Rose! You're alive! Thank the heavens!"

"Considering you were about to be a sacrifice, thanking the heavens isn't something I'd recommend doing." Jinx replied automatically.

Her reply was overlooked as Edmund greeted Rose, much to the Doctor's surprise, by hugging her. He frowned at the action but was otherwise silent.

"I thought something had happened to you." Edmund continued, once he had released her, "There was blood."

"Oh, that was mine." Jinx said, taking out the ring and calling the elevator.

"Yeah, that was hers." Rose agreed, and she felt an odd tinge at how cheerily they were discussing this. It reminded her of the tone her mum had whenever she got a paper cut, but getting stabbed wasn't quite on the same scale. "Sleev stabbed her when she tried to rescue me."

Edmund looked over at Jinx. "Oh, I apologise-"

"It was hardly your fault." Jinx scoffed.

"Yes, but still…" His face was remorseful as he spoke, "I feel responsible. It was my fault Rose got kidnapped in the first place."

"About that-" The Doctor interjected. He clapped a hand on Edmund shoulder, "Next time, you think of joining a cult, don't." He gave the shoulder a squeeze, "Really, just… don't." He removed his hand, and as an afterthought he added, with an accompanying pointing index finger, "Also, that is my companion you almost got killed, if you hadn't tried to redeem yourself then you would find yourself facing me and trust me, you don't want that."

"Isn't it lucky then he did redeem?" Jinx said, as the elevator arrived, "How about you continue this conversation, you know, far away from the sacrificial altar?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Agreed Rose.

Jinx gestured towards the elevator, motioning her fellow comrades past. Her hand grabbed the Doctor's elbow, motioning him forward, and slipping lower and finally away from him, as the four of them settled into position.

Jinx's eye was on the door as the elevator dinged.

She quickly slipped out of the elevator as the door started to close. Three pairs of eyes widened in surprise as Jinx turned. On her index finger, the ring gleamed.

The Doctor moved forward, shouting, "No!" but he was too late. The doors had closed. Jinx had the ring. She was planning to get her revenge.

"What is it?" Edmund asked, confused by the event.

"She's planning to go after Sleev, isn't she?" Rose asked the Doctor, who was currently digging into his pockets, looking for his sonic screwdriver.

"Sleev?" Edmund turned his head, "He was knocked unconscious though."

"Not for long, I'm guessing." Rose said, "Considering she can see the future, she probably knows when he would wake up."

"Yes, and that's a very bad thing. Jinx is like a bloodhound out for…" He frowned, "Well, blood. That's what bloodhounds are usually out for. That and meat."

"You don't think she'd really kill him though," Rose asked warily, "Would she?" The Doctor threw her a look, "Oh. She would."

The Doctor patted at his pockets, "Have you seen my screwdriver?" He asked Rose, "I could've sworn I had it a minute ago."

The turned to stare at each other, silently sharing the same thought.

"You don't think-"

"She stole it." The Doctor exclaimed suddenly, his eyes flaring in indignation, "She stole it, didn't she? She stole my sonic screwdriver." He huffed out a breath and began to mutter to himself, running a hand through his hair, "This is just like the laser spanner incident. Sure, she's no Emily Pankhurst but still, it's me who ends up spanner-less, or in this case screwdriver-less. You know I should've learned from the last time, but did I? No, I did not!" He let out a sigh, and turned to Rose once more to ask, "I'm too trusting, aren't I?"

Rose placed a hand on his shoulder, "No, of course not! You give people the benefit of the doubt, but that's a good thing. Anyway, you don't need the sonic screwdriver, Doctor. You've done this stuff a thousand times before. You can figure this out," She hesitated for a moment, "Can't you?"

"Yes, of course I can, but really, you'd think that my possessions would be safe from idle hands. My laser spanner, my suit, and now my sonic screwdriver." He let out a sigh, and stared off into the distance almost wistfully, "You know I think a pattern is beginning to develop…"

"Probably." Rose agreed.

"It's despicable."

"Yes, it is."

"I mean here I am, the epitome of trust, and going around trusting people and saving the world and then-"

"Doctor," she interrupted.

He stopped talking abruptly.

Rose indicated towards the elevator panel that Edmund had, during their conversation, removed.

"Oh right, sorry."

And with that he went to work.

--------

Jinx was leaning against a pillar when Sleev awoke. In one hand, she held her knife and was sharpening it against a piece of whetstone.

"You know, I always love the gleam of a knife's blade as the light hits it. I'm sure you agree." She smiled, almost predatorily, "And here I found this nice piece of whetstone so I figured while you were still napping I would sharpen it up."

Sleev stood up, rather unsteadily, less graceful than he was used to.

"Do you think you can scare me, little girl?"

She dropped the whetstone. It landed on the ground with a dull thud.

"I'm hardly little, and I'm more woman than girl." Her eyes were dark and narrowed as she whispered spitefully, "And you should be scared of me. I may not be your worst nightmare, but I've faced all of mine and still lived through them. That makes me more dangerous than you realise."

Sleev laughed haughtily and he gingerly touched the wound on his head. His finger came back tinged red. He advanced towards her slowly, eyeing the knife in her hand cautiously. He felt at his own wrist, and came back empty.

"Ah, dangerous is my favourite type of woman." He smirked, "If you were only pure of blood, I'm sure we'd get along brilliantly."

Sleev breathed in deeply.

"What is your species by the way?" Sleev said, as the carefully circled around each other, each poised to attack. "I can smell it, but I can't place it."

"It's actually my perfume. Au-de-personal. Isn't it the best?" She replied, with a smirk.

"You're a half breed."

"I know."

"Yet, you are rare."

"Oh, aren't we all? Individuality is a blessing."

Sleev sneered at her, "What are you? I have to know."

"You don't." She then smiled, "Because I'm going to kill you and death is the same for every species, regardless of people being half-breeds or otherwise."

He motioned towards her knife, "I hardly think it's fair. You with a knife and me weapon less."

"I don't think you're the kind of person to fight fair, why should I?"

"Revenge. What point is there in revenge if your victim is overcome so easily?"

She stared at him for a moment, and then smiled. She sheathed her knife; making sure to fasten the strap around it so it would not easily be taken should he chose to attempt to steal it from her. She was not an idiot. He would not fight all too fair unless forced to.

"Fine. This is what you want. So be it." She moved into a fighting stance, knees bent forwards ever so slightly. Her hands were raised, curling into fists before unclenching them again. "Let's see _you_ fight fair."

Sleev laughed and made a show of stretching out his muscles, slowly and meticulously. She imagined him with more muscles and found the image in her mind was more impressive than the genuine article.

"Do you want to do your nails as well? I'm sure we have plenty of time before I kill you." She smirked, "_Sleev_."

His eyes fixed on hers. They stared at each other for a moment, with more glare than stare in their eyes.

And then he attacked.

------------

"Ow!"

The Doctor pulled back his finger, waved it in the air a few timed before he sucked on its tip, trying to comfort from the electric shock it had just received.

"I _really_ need to work on my wiring skills."

"Are you done?" Edmund asked.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder, "No! I am _not_ done! For the eleventh time!"

He went back to the wiring.

"I've only asked twice." Edmund muttered to Rose who smiled apologetically to him.

"Are you any closer?" Rose asked.

"I should be… about done in…" With his free hand he scratched the back of his head, "Well, about now- OW!"

He yelped as his finger came into contact with another current, but to their surprise the elevator moved down. The Doctor quickly shut the panel and jabbed at the button.

When the elevator doors opened, the Doctor stepped out and turned towards Edmund and Rose with a triumphant smile on his face, "Admit it," He began, "I am brilliant!"

Edmund remained silent, but in his mind he wondered if he knew anyone whose ego seemed as large as the man before him. Considering the society he had been involved in throughout his life he probably had, but it was considerably difficult to remember anyone exceeded that of the Doctor.

Rose merely smiled, "Yeah, right, let's go then."

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Jinx ducked as Sleev threw a punch towards her chest. She doubled back, careful to keep her footing and raised her leg to kick his out from under him. He caught her foot easily and twisted it. She quickly dropped to her hands, and used her free foot to once again kick at his knee.

He let out a grunt, and fell down on one knee.

Her foot dropped with a thud and she quickly rolled into a standing position as he stood up once more, rubbing the spot where she had kicked him.

"You're fast." Sleev commented. "You're a fighter. A soldier in the war? Interesting."

Her eyes narrowed. "Everyone fought in the war."

"Ah, but few half-breeds."

Jinx quickly moved forward, throwing punch after punch. He defended himself easily.

"What's your interest? What does it matter to you what kind of species I am?"

"I _need_ to know."

He got a cheap shot to her head, and she blinked, disoriented for a moment. It gave him the advantage and he quickly grabbed her by the throat, both hands pressing into her neck in a vicious grip. Pain flared as he crashed her into the nearby wall, using his new support to raise her upwards.

She clawed at her throat, but fingers gripped tighter and so she quickly curled her hands into fists and brought them together against his head.

Once.

Fingers faltered at her neck.

Twice.

She gulped in a breath.

A final time.

The grip on her neck slackened fully and her feet touched solid ground. She coughed a few times, and when she spoke, her voice came out hoarse.

"I will never tell you my species."

She moved to punch him. He caught her wrist. Then the other one as she tried to punch him with her unbound hand.

He flushed her towards him, chest pressed against chest.

His lips came crashing down on hers.

Eyes wide open, shocked, Jinx stood, unmoving.

It took her a moment to regain her senses. Another to break the hold on her wrists and lift her hand to slap him across the face. And a third to push him away, anger coating her glare and the taste of disgust in the back of her throat. And mouth. And lips.

She grimaced.

"I know your species." Sleev said, triumphant.

She swallowed a lump in her throat. The lump tasted more like bile.

Sleev grinned at her, and then raising in his hand a teleportation device, he pressed a button. Jinx rushed forward, drawing out her knife and slashing at him. He wouldn't get away. She wasn't going to let him get away.

Her free hand wrapped around his wrist, whilst the other, containing the knife, connected with flesh, slicing at skin.

They disappeared in an instance in a haze of blue light and a fine red mist from his side seared from his side.

--------

The Doctor, Rose and Edmund ran into the room in time to see the two disappear in a haze of blue light.

"A teleport." Edmund said aloud, recognising the pattern. He had one himself, or at least, he did before it had been taken by Sleev, nonetheless. "They're gone."

Rose would've frowned, she would've been frustrated, and she would've gone over to the Doctor and tried to tell him he'd tried his best. She would've done all that and more had her eyes not caught the familiar sight of silver and blue on the smooth floor.

She raced over to it.

"Doctor!"

She picked up his sonic screwdriver and waved it in the air like a flag.

His face lit up in an elated smile, "Oh you're brilliant you are, Rose Tyler! Just brilliant!" As he took it gently from her fingers, he gave her a look at pride, "You're like my good luck charm." He turned his head to Edmund, "She's amazingly good at finding things."

"Um…" Edmund began, eyeing the sonic screwdriver with curiosity and bemusement, "How exactly is a silver stick going to help with the fact they've teleported?"

The Doctor looked offended. In fact he looked mortified. He cradled the sonic screwdriver to his chest as if it were the most precious thing in the world to him. And in that moment, in the face of offense, it was.

"A stick?" He echoed the words at first quiet. And then louder. Much louder, "A stick! This is much more than a stick! This Edward-"

"It's Edmund."

"-is a sonic screwdriver. This is the tool of a Time Lord. This _stick_-" He said the word as if it were poison in his mouth, "-has saved the universe. Many times, I'll have you know. Can't exactly say the same for you."

Rose stepped between them and threw them each a look of warning. The Doctor rolled his eyes, Edmund did nothing.

"The Doctor's good with teleports." She assured Edmund, "Trust me."

Rose spoke with a glint of nostalgia in her eye. She remembered the Doctor of before with blue eyes, and cropped hair and a jacket that seemed to carry the burden in its well worn leather. She looked over to the Doctor and was still amazed at how he was the same man and yet entirely new. New new Doctor, but still welcomingly familiar in his brown pinstripes and 'brainy' specs. Still, she missed the old him.

"I am _very_ good with teleports."

With that the Doctor, having just adjusted the settings, raised the sonic screwdriver in the air and pressed.

------

Sleev cried out as the knife came into contact with his side. Jinx blinked repeatedly in an attempt to rid herself of the effects from the teleportation. Her distortion was gone within moments and she wasted no time in regaining her advantage.

She pressed her fist into his side, and he grunted, falling forwards. She moved to throw him over her hip. Sleev landed on the ground and quickly found Jinx's knife pressed to the hollow of his throat. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

"Tell me your name." She asked, "Your real name."

He laughed, and the knife pressed in deeper. Jinx eyed a droplet of blood as it slowly seeped down his neck.

"My name is Jermaine Sleeverante the Fifth.

Her eyes widened.

"No…" She breathed out.

Anger flared in her eyes and she pulled back her knife from his neck. She quickly sliced it down on his arm. The strap of the teleporter on Sleev's wrist was cut in two and she grabbed it, standing up and walked backwards.

Her eyes closed for a moment as she felt the future, but when she opened them, anger pooled into her eyes. She let out a curse, slamming the palm of her free hand against the nearby wall.

Sleev watched, elbows propping him up, confused by her actions.

He had expected her to kill him. Her eyes held the glint of a killer. It was a look he had seen in his own eyes every morning. It was a glint that made him smile in pride every time he looked in a mirror or saw in his knife as it flashed his reflection to him. And yet the one in hers had not diminished when he had told her his name, it had grown.

Jinx looked up to meet his eyes, "One day I _hope_ I _will_ kill you." She said, her voice devoid of emotion, "But today is not that day."

She was about to press her hand to the teleport but, much to her surprise, she disappeared in a haze of blue.

She looked up to see the Doctor. There was anger in his glare.

"I couldn't kill him." His gaze softened, "His name is Jermaine Sleeverante the Fifth."

The name registered somewhere in his mind and his eyes widened when it finally dawned on him. He gave her a curt nod. He understood.

**To be continued...**

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**AN: Reviews are like fish fingers in custard. Apparantly. Give plentifully. :D**


	40. Chapter 39

**AN: Planned to have this up yesterday, but I got distracted by the new ep of DW, obviously, and well... the Sims 3 which I just got so... Yep, easily distracted, but one day late isn't that bad. Oh, good news or bad... depending, I'm planning out a new story. And I plan to get a beta. And I plan for it to be relatively few chapters so it's almost like an episode. I'm actually planning. I know! Surprising! Not sure which Doctor to write for - 11 or 10? Ah, the plan will probably fall apart at some point but still... Anyway, on with this story...**

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Rose was curious by the silent exchange that seemed to be going on between the Doctor and Jinx. When neither said anything more on the subject as they left, with the Doctor possessing both the ring and his sonic screwdriver and Jinx far out of reach from both of them, Rose decided to enquire after they stepped out of the elevator.

"Who's Jermaine Sleeverante the Fifth?"

The Doctor's eyes moved towards Jinx and Edmund, who were just ahead of them. He gently took her by the wrist and hung back as the two ventured ahead.

Once Edmund was out of earshot, Rose asked again.

"Jermaine Sleeverante the Fifth is, or I suppose will be is more specific, going to be one of the most famous serial killers in the universe during this century."

Rose eyes widened.

"He's going to be a serial killer?"

Rose could barely believe she had been so near to a serial killer. It seemed unreal.

"Yes..." He then frowned, "Well, also an assassin. The Cantani Assassin, to be exact, but that's a few years after he starts on his killing spree. In his lifetime, he has a recorded death toll of 127 people."

"That's..."

She couldn't think of what to say.

She had heard about serial killers on the news back home, everyone had, but it was such a normal horror; not like the ones stuff she'd seen with the Doctor. It seemed like stuff like that didn't seem to happen on alien planets. It was naive of her to think so, she knew that, but still...

She could remember her mum would make an offhanded comment about it, with a cup of tea placed firmly in one hand. It often that went something along the lines of 'Oh, that's horrible, isn't it sweetheart?' and for the next few days she would warn her to be careful. Rose would simply smile at her and promise half-heartedly that she would. It had worked, and she did look over her shoulder on the walks home from a night out more often than not.

Rose had a sudden urge to ring up her mum, and ask her to be careful.

"Why couldn't Jinx kill him?" She asks, when she regained her voice.

"His last victim is going to be the President of Sherbi – Delgade St. Clais. His death is a fixed point in time. It leads to a worldwide peace organisation being formed. His death will end up saving millions. It stops a war, which ironically was not the Cantani assassin's hirer wanted. Sleev _has_ to kill Delgade St. Clais otherwise time falls apart."

Her mind flashed back to her father, and she closed her eyes for a moment, willing his image away. That memory was saved for more private moments.

She opened her eyes again.

"A paradox?" The Doctor nodded. "Reapers?" He nodded again. "I know you say it saves millions, but that's still horrible. All those people are destined to die and he has to kill them... That's just..."

The Doctor laid a hand gently on her shoulder, "I know."

She leaned into his touch, and realised she missed it today. After everything that had happened, she was glad that he was with her again. It made things seem better.

She turned to look at him, "I missed you today."

He smiled, "I missed you too, Rose Tyler."

--------

They went to Jinx's room because it was closer.

Edmund looked around the room as he entered, not quite settling his gaze on anything particular. He felt awkward, out of place.

He, too, had heard the exchange between Jinx and the Doctor. Sleev had once been his friend, and they had acted as if they had known something about him. It was definitely something they didn't want him to know. He understood. He wasn't exactly high on their list of trustworthy people. He still felt guilty about what had happened to Rose.

A patch of red caught his eye as his eyes passed Jinx. Blood was seeping slowly through her shirt. It seemed striking against the pale shirt.

"You're bleeding." He said.

"Am I?" She looked down, touched the wound gently, "Damn it, the stitches opened again." She looked over to the Doctor and Rose, frowned, eyes closing momentarily, and then turned back to Edmund. "You know how to do stitches, Ed?"

"It's Edmund."

"I thought we'd agreed that I'm calling you Ed." She said with a smile and he threw her an irritated look, which seemed to make her smile even more.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, as in you do know?"

He nodded.

"Great," She caught him by the arm, "You can suture me up then." She turned back to the Doctor and Rose, "I'll leave you two to talk."

With that she dragged Edmund into the bedroom, or was it bathroom? Rose thought as she watched them. She wasn't quite sure.

"What was all that about?"

The Doctor's eyes were drawn together as he looked at the now closed door they had gone into. He looked confused, and even more surprised. To Rose, it reminded her of normalcy. That made her smile. It almost made her laugh at how adorable he looked, like a puppy, but she held her laughter back.

"I think... she was giving us some privacy." He laughed, as if the thought brought him great amusement. "Me and you," He turned to Rose with a smile, "We don't need privacy."

Even though a part of her mind understood what he meant; knew their closeness, knew that they held no secrets – well, that wasn't entirely true. She still didn't know much about his past and after 900 years of being alive, it'd probably take the whole of her lifetime to divulge all his history.

Yet even though she understood his point, Rose couldn't help but feel a twinge of dissapointment at his statement. Espscially when he turned away, and took out his sonic screwdriver, practically ignoring her once again.

--------------

Jinx was lying on the bed, unnaturally still; all save for her right hand. No, her hand was not still. It was twitching. She hated it when her hand twitched.

_Adrenaline_, she reminded herself, _Just adrenaline._

After everything she had faced in her life, she thought that by now she would've gotten used to the effects of adrenaline, and for the most part she had, but every so often adrenaline still caught up with her. It didn't help that her knuckles were injured, but she didn't bring that up. An unlucky punch was all it had been. Her hand would be fine in a few hours.

That was why she needed Edmund's help with her stitches. Normally, she would deal with them herself, even when the difficulties of self-suturing arose, but she had lost too much blood today and she couldn't afford to wait for her body to calm down to do these things for herself.

Her pulse was fast. She closed her eyes, and focused on her breathing.

Her mind went back to Sleev. She had been so close to killing him. So close. This was his fault, she decided, it all came back to him. Her wound was his doing. She wouldn't need stitching up if it weren't for him.

"How did you know Sleev's real name?"

Her eyes opened. She looked up at Edmund, broken from her thoughts. His hand was raised slightly abover her skin, the needle gleamed like a stretched star against the light.

"I asked him." Jinx replied simply. She had. If she hadn't though… She almost dreaded to think of the concequences.

"I hope you don't mind the enquiry, but did you actually kill him, or were you just saying that?"

His hand was moving again. She tried not to focus on the slight twinge of pain she still felt as the needle pierced her skin. With her untwitching hand, the one that was currently holding on to the helm of her shirt, she moved it up a little higher for him.

Jinx eyed him warily, "Why?"

He met her gaze, and for a moment she could see the hate in his cold and curious eyes. The hate was not directed at her though, but Sleev, she presumed. It made her curious. What _had_ went on with them?

"After everything he did to me, I want to know if he's really dead or not. That's why."

She was never one for holding back, so she had no problems prying.

"What did he do to you?" Jinx asked, "How did you even get mixed up into this?"

"When we were kids, me and Sleev were friends. Best friends. Growing up, he changed and most of the time, I had to fold to his whims, but he wasn't bad. Not then. He was still my friend back then and I didn't have many friends. I guess I just wanted to hold on to what I still had." He grew silent for a moment, and her eyes took in his expression, "Then the war came."

"Everything comes back to the war." Jinx murmured offhandedly.

Her own memories of it came back. Just for a moment, before she pushed them to the back of her mind again. She wasn't sure if they were talking about the same war, but didn't they all lead back to one big one. It hardly mattered anyway. War was war, and all it brought was pain.

"Did you fight?" she asked.

Edmund shook his head, "Sleev saved me from having to fight so when he came back I welcomed him with open arms." He laughed; it sounded bitter to her ears, "He wasn't the same though. He started killing; killed his own damn mother. I didn't know it was him though, not at the time. He started following in Enignamia's footsteps and when my father died, I was getting pushed in from all sides to stay even though I had been so close to getting out. Sometimes, I wonder if he had something to do with my father's death..."

He lapsed into a calm quiet, lost in thought. She knew the feeling.

"I'm sorry." Jinx said, when the silence had grown uncomfortable for her. She didn't really know how to break it, so she said what she had seen so many others say at such times. She almost laughed at the thought. As if saying _sorry_ meant much…

Edmund smiled appreciatively nonetheless.

Ok, Jinx thought, maybe it meant something…

"Yeah, even if he didn't have anything to do with it, I'd still hate him for who he is. He's a monster who preys on the misery of others; misery he causes. That's why I'm curious as to whether he's still alive or not."

"He isn't dead." She said, "_Really_."

"I would've killed him if I'd been in your position."

"I would've too if I'd been allowed to."

Edmund frowned. "What does that _even _mean?"

Jinx's lips pursed together tightly, "Nothing of importance to you." She looked down at her side, and the a string of neat stitches looked back. "You done?"

Edmund nodded, and Jinx could still see he was annoyed by her vague replies. He wouldn't understand though. "I'm all done."

She stood up, and pulled her shirt up and over her head to inspect her stitches in the mirror. Edmund watched, half amused, by her actions. The other half quickly roamed over her body. His eyes caught the edges of well hidden scars.

"You did a good job." Jinx commented. She ran her thumb against them lightly. He'd even added butterfly stitches; that was almost fancy for an amateur. "For someone who wasn't in the war."

"Just because I didn't fight in the war didn't mean I wasn't there at all."

Ah… That explained things. She nodded, understanding and began to bandage up her side again. When she was done, she slipped on a new shirt. It was black this time. If her wound did seep again, she didn't want any observant eyes picking up on the fact. She would just have to be careful when she left town.

Jinx turned, and walked back to Edmund. She pulled him up from where he had taken a seat on the edge of her bed and began to remove his shirt with nimble fingers. His eyes widened momentarily.

"Right, let's get a look at _your _battlewounds." The edge of her lip twitched, "Ed."

In response, he merely rolled his eyes at her.

------

The Doctor went straight to a computer, sonic screwdriver clasped in one hand, and his other flying over the keyboard as soon as he took a seat.

The sonic screwdriver buzzed as he shot past the hotel firewalls, breaching their security measures.

Rose walked up behind him, "What are you doing?"

"Hacking into the hotel."

She frowned, but looked over his shoulder nonetheless. Numbers and words flew past the screen faster than she could take the time to read them. She wondered how he was able to do it; how did he see things when they moved so quickly and she wondered what it would be like to see as he did, if only for a moment. Would it be dizzying for her?

"What are you doing that for?"

"To stop little Edmund's-" The Doctor began but was quickly interrupted by Rose.

"It's Edmund." Rose replied automatically.

The Doctor stilled. He frowned. Hadn't he said that? He thought back to a second ago, and his frown deepened. He looked over his shoulder at Rose.

"That's what I said."

"You did?" She seemed surprised. The Doctor nodded, "Oh, sorry."

"Apology accepted." He turned back to the keyboard, returning to his task, "Anyway little _Edward's_-" Rose didn't mention it this time. She was pretty sure he did this on purpose. Poor Mickey had complained about it all the time whenever the Doctor took her home for a visit. "-kidnappers are still in the building. Now with the Passing of Angelsidus overhead the hotel has had to redirect its power supply to its own backup generator. Well, actually it must be an alternate energy generator otherwise it would be affected by the Passing too."

"What is the Passing of Ang- Anglel-" She struggled to repeat the word.

"Angelsidus."

"Yeah. Passing of Angelsidus." She smiled, "That."

"Oh, a natural anomality. It gives off a powerful magnetic field that affects effects many of the energy sources commonly used in large planets such as this. It's effects are only temporary, but it's necessary for the planet to maintain balance."

"Right, so it basically turns off the power so the electrician can come in and do an upgrade."

The Doctor beamed at that, and shouted, "Correctamundo!"

As soon as the word graced his lips, he froze, and scrunched up his fac, offended by his own choice of words…well, word, technically. He then threw a cautious look at Rose. She shook her head lightly at him, a laugh escaping her lips before she could capture it, "Never saying that again." He assured himself, and had the nagging feeling of deja-vu.

Rose patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, "Probably for the best."

"Anyway, the hotel has a backup generator. Now if we lock everyone in, we can get Edmund's help in identifying who is part of Enignamia and-"

"Get them arrested?" Rose queried. The Doctor grinned and nodded. His smile held the gleam of a time lord on the verge of triumphance, "But that's brilliant!" She exclaimed.

Rose hugged him from behind. He leaned back against her, and felt the press of the diary in his pocket burn like a fiery reminder. He quickly leaned forward again, away from her touch.

"Now all I have to do is press a few buttons and voila!"

Suddenly, and rather expectantly, a loud warning bell rang loudly in the distance. It grew louder as more and more joined in. The view from the windows was suddenly blocked by shutters slamming harshly down.

Jinx suddenly burst from the room; Edmund followed on her heels, and was noticably not wearing a shirt. Rose winced in sympathy at the bruises visible on his torso, now battered black and blue and violent purple.

"What the _hell _did you do?" Jinx demanded, glaring at the Doctor. There was a roll of bandages in her hand.

"I am making sure his kidnappers don't get away." The Doctor stood, and moved towards Edmund. "And you." He grasped his shoulders, careful not to pressed against that wasn't his natural skin colour or bandaged. "You are going to help me." He pushed Edmund into a seat.

"Can I at least be wearing a shirt while I help you?"

Rose supressed a smile. "I'll go get your shirt." She said, and went into the bedroom.

**To be continued... (obviously)**

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**AN: Ok, so this is the point where all you brilliant people press that nice little review button... And I go all giddy like I've eaten too much sugar at getting reviews... :D **


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